Health & WellnessS


Monkey Wrench

World's first double arm transplant as man gets teenager's limbs in 16-hour operation

Allan Hall
The Mail
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:15 UTC
Surgeons have performed the world's first double arm transplant.

The 16-hour operation was carried out last Friday on a farm worker who lost both arms in an accident.

The 54-year-old man was given the arms of a teenage boy who is believed to have died in a road crash.

Image
©Unknown
Professor Edgar Biemer who performed the operation. The patient approached him with the idea after seeing him on TV
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Syringe

Flu vaccination may not help elderly, study says

Cherie Black
Seattle P-I
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:55 UTC
When flu season strikes, the first line of defense for seniors, who are considered among the most vulnerable, is a flu vaccine.

But a new study by Group Health suggests that for seniors, a vaccine doesn't offer as much protection as originally thought.

The study, which will be published in Saturday's issue of the medical journal The Lancet, found no link between flu vaccinations and the risk of pneumonia - a common and potentially life-threatening complication of the flu.
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Syringe

South Vietnam: Mystery of 'vaccinated' chickens dying of bird flu


Asiaone News
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:30 UTC
Chickens that are vaccinated against bird flu are supposed to be immune to the disease.

But hundreds of chickens at a poultry farm in southern Vietnam have died of avian influenza - even though the farm owner had earlier reported that the birds were vaccinated against the disease, an official said yesterday.

Since late last month, several hundreds of the 3,000 chickens in the flock have died at the farm in Tan Lan commune in Long An province, 50 km west of Ho Chi Minh City.
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Pills

Ireland: Chemist suffering from flu is killed by half a paracetamol tablet


This is London
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:23 UTC


Paracetamol
©Unknown
Killer: Deborah Robinson took 16-and-a-half pills

A chemist shop worker suffering from flu died after accid­entally overdosing on paracetamol - by just half a tablet, an inquest heard.

Deborah Robinson suffered liver and kidney failure after taking sixteen-and-a-half pills in two days.

The 37-year-old, who had not been taking any other over-the-counter remedies, sought help after realising the mistake but died five days later.

Comment: Let us clarify that last statement.

There is no pharmaceutical medication that is 100 percent safe. And they seem to be coming less and less safe as time goes by.

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Syringe

Flashback Adenovirus 14 caused outbreak of severe community acquired pneumonia

Doug Brunk
Internal Medicine News
Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:28 UTC
SAN DIEGO -- During the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2007, adenovirus 14 caused a community outbreak of respiratory disease in Oregon, with a fatality rate of 19%, Dr. Paul Lewis reported at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
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Health

Exercise In A Pill? Researchers Identify Drugs That Enhance Exercise Endurance


Science Daily
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:46 UTC
Trying to reap the health benefits of exercise? Forget treadmills and spin classes, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found a way around the sweat and pain. They identified two signaling pathways that are activated in response to exercise and converge to dramatically increase endurance.

Mouse on a treadmill
©Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Mouse on a treadmill.

The team of scientists, led by Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression Laboratory report in the July 31 advance online edition of the journal Cell that simultaneously triggering both pathways with oral drugs turned laboratory mice into long-distance runners and conferred many of exercise's other benefits.

In addition to their allure for endurance athletes, drugs that mimic the effects of exercise have therapeutic potential in treating certain muscle diseases, such as wasting and frailty, hospital patients unable to exercise, veterans and others with disabilities as well as obesity and a slew of associated metabolic disorders where exercise is known to be beneficial.
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Heart

Discovery May Lead To Immunization Against Cardiovascular Disease


Science Daily
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:41 UTC
Low levels of naturally occurring antibodies may represent an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke in men. This discovery, published in the academic journal Atherosclerosis, has now led to attempts to develop an immunization against cardiovascular disease.

Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is an inflammatory disease in which the walls of the blood vessels are thickened and become less elastic. It can cause blood clots and other cardiovascular diseases. It is not known precisely what causes atherosclerosis, but the immune system probably plays an important role. Research scientists suspect that various oxidised forms of what is known as bad cholesterol, LDL (low-density lipoprotein), contribute to the development of the disease.

A research team from Karolinska Institutet, in cooperation with Lund University, has now shown that a particular type of naturally occurring antibodies, anti-PC, which are targeted against the lipid portion of the LDL molecule, play an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease. The findings show that individuals who have low levels of anti-PC are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk is particularly high in men who develop stroke, with an almost fourfold increase.
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Bulb

Improved Estrogen Reception May Sharpen Fuzzy Memory


Science Daily
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:15 UTC
Estrogen treatments may sharpen mental performance in women with certain medical conditions, but University of Florida researchers suggest that recharging a naturally occurring estrogen receptor in the brain may also clear cognitive cobwebs.

The discovery suggests that drugs can be developed to offset "senior moments" related to low estrogen levels, as well as to protect against neurological diseases, all while avoiding the problems associated with adding estrogen to the body.

Writing online in Molecular Therapy in July, scientists with UF's McKnight Brain Institute describe how they improved thought processes in female mice bred with the inability to produce estrogen receptor-alpha, a protein apparently necessary for healthy learning and memory.
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Alarm Clock

Latin American water supplies in danger of contamination


Xinhua
Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:45 UTC
MEXICO CITY - Water supplies in Latin America are in danger of contamination as 86 percent of the region's sewage is poured out untreated, the Latin American Water Tribunal (TLA) warned Tuesday.
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Health

Researchers find 3 new genes for schizophrenia

Michael Kahn
Reuters
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:31 UTC
International researchers have identified three new DNA variations that increase the risk of schizophrenia and said on Wednesday they were some of the strongest genetic links yet found to the disease.

The results published in two independent studies in the journal Nature also confirmed a previously known genetic variation and could lead to new treatments for the condition that affects around 1 in 100 people, the researchers said.
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