Health & WellnessS

Stop

Use of hyperactivity drugs soars

The use of drugs to treat hyperactivity in children has soared worldwide, say US researchers.
Between 1993 and 2003, prescriptions of ADHD medications, such as Ritalin, almost tripled.
Global spending on ADHD drugs increased nine-fold, with 83% occurring in the US, a study in Health Affairs reported.

Robot

Japanese researchers unveil medical mini robot



©AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno
Japan's Ritsumeikan University researchers unveil a prototype model of the micro medical robot, measuring 1cm in diameter, 2cm in length and weighing only 5-grammes, which enables it to stay and move inside a human body to remove or treat the affected part of disease, especially cancer.

Light Saber

How A Specific Fat Type Can Protect Against Weight Gain And Diabetes

A new study from Joslin Diabetes Center may shed light on why some people can eat excessive amounts of food and not gain weight or develop type 2 diabetes, while others are more likely to develop obesity and this most common form of diabetes on any diet. The study, which used two strains of mice with differing tendencies to gain weight and develop diabetes on a high-fat diet, identified genetic and cellular mechanisms that may prevent certain mice on a calorie-dense diet from gaining weight and developing metabolic syndrome.

"Although this study was done with mice, it points out new mechanisms that may underlie the ability of genetically different mice -- and perhaps genetically different people -- to not gain much weight on high caloric diets," said lead investigator C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., an internationally recognized researcher who is Head of Joslin's Section on Obesity and Hormone Action and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Coffee

Sorry, coffee won't make you more alert

Is coffee really the pick-me-up it's made out to be?

Not according to researchers from Bristol University in the UK.

They have found that having a caffeinated drink does not make you more alert than non-coffee drinkers, reported The Daily Mail.

And if you're a regular drinker, it won't make you more alert than you usually are.

It merely relieves withdrawal symptoms, they said.

Ambulance

Super bug kills dozens in hospitals across country

A deadly bacterium known as Klebsiella pneumoniae is believed to have killed some 120-200 patients in hospitals across the country.

"Between 400 to 500 people have been infected by the bug, and 30 to 40 percent of them have already died. However, it is important to note that most of them were in a serious condition, and some were suffering from prior medical conditions," said Prof. Yehuda Carmeli, the head of the epidemiology unit at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

According to Carmeli, most of those infected have been hospitalized for over 25 days, and their average age stood at 74-75.

The virulent stain of bacteria is resistant to all kinds of antibiotics, and has already spread in many hospitals across Israel.

Health

Breath test for diabetes

Physicists have developed a simple breath test that may be capable of detecting Type I diabetes.

The results, presented on 5 March at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver, Colorado, could lead to non-invasive ways to check for the disease, and possibly even a cheap new tool for monitoring daily glucose levels without drawing blood.

Type I diabetes, often called juvenile diabetes, is a condition in which the body fails to produce insulin, a chemical that breaks down glucose. The resulting elevated blood-sugar levels can send patients into shock, and over the long term can lead to blindness, kidney damage and heart disease. It can also cause a fruity smell on the breath.

Magnify

Neuroscientist Records Surprising Brain 'Dialogue' During Sleep

In work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by a Brown University neuroscientist describes groundbreaking recordings of activity in two brain regions during deep sleep.
The "dialogue" they captured occurred between the hippocampus and the neocortex, areas of the brain where scientists believe memories are made and stored. The findings were startling.

Attention

Lung cancer screenings may not save lives

A new study casts doubt on the potential of lung cancer screenings to save lives.

Patients screened with spiral CT scans are three times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer. But they're no less likely to die from the disease than if they were never tested, according to an analysis in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.


Eye 1

Bausch & Lomb recalls second contact lens solution

Chicago - Bausch & Lomb said on Tuesday it has started a limited recall of its ReNu MultiPlus contact lens solution, just 10 months after its global recall of another popular contact lens solution linked to a serious eye infection.

Bausch said the MultiPlus solution contained traces of iron, which could discolor the solution and shorten its shelf life. It has not had any reports of health problems associated with use of the solution.

Ambulance

Obesity Surgery Triples Among U.S. Teens

The number of U.S. children having obesity surgery has tripled in recent years, surging at a pace that could mean more than 1,000 such operations this year, new research suggests. While the procedure is still far more common in adults, it appears to be slightly less risky in teens, according to an analysis of data on 12- to 19-year-olds who had obesity surgery from 1996 through 2003.