Health & WellnessS


Light Saber

Campaign to outlaw aspartame in schools

Ruth Hill
The Dominion Post
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:57 UTC
Food Safety campaigners are calling for a ban on diet drinks and other artificially sweetened products in schools after a Wellington woman said she was poisoned by sugar-free chewing gum.

Abigail Cormack, 25, said she began suffering muscle cramps, heart palpitations, anxiety, depression and skin rashes after chewing gum that contained the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Her symptoms disappeared when she stopped her four-pack-a-day habit.
Read More...
Health

A jab to halt Alzheimer's could be available within a few years

Fiona Macrae
Daily Mail
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:28 UTC
A revolutionary drug that stops Alzheimer's disease in its tracks could be available within a few years.

It could prevent people from reaching the devastating final stages of the illness, in which sufferers lose the ability to walk, talk and even swallow, and end up totally dependent on others.

The jab, which is now being tested on patients, could be in widespread use in as little as six years.

©Daily Mail
Read More...
Attention

Medical Error Is The Fifth-Leading Cause Of Death In The U.S.


Medical News Today
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:43 UTC
Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence has conducted a detailed and thorough analysis of the acute care clinical information systems (CIS) market and finds that a major driver in the US is the demand for improvement in patient safety. Medical errors are the fifth-leading cause of deaths in the US, with up to 98,000 deaths annually. According to the new report entitled US Markets for Acute Care Clinical Information Systems, hospitals are adopting CIS to help them provide adequate, timely care and reduce the frequency of preventable errors.

"Medical errors in the healthcare system arise from miscommunication, physician order transcription errors, adverse drug events, or incomplete patient medical records," says David Plow, Senior Analyst at MRG. "Generally, medical errors are caused by overcrowded, understaffed clinical areas with complex workflow patterns, and incomplete or inefficient communication between clinical areas. Through the use of a CIS, professionals within each clinical area are able to access and use information pertinent to a patient's medical profile and history. As a result, CIS can effectively help prevent errors and enhance patient safety.
Read More...
Crusader

No Hiding For Child Abusers, Australia


Medical News Today
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:41 UTC
People who shake children hard enough to cause brain damage will soon be unable to hide behind false defences in court, thanks to new UQ research.

Researchers from the University of Queensland have conducted tests on a true-to-life model of a baby to show exactly how shaking damages the infant brain.

The researchers have successfully tested a numerical model that accurately predicts the type and extent of injuries based on real brain scans from cases of alleged child abuse.

Until now, it has been difficult for doctors looking at scans to say whether brain damage in a baby was caused from shaking or from other causes such as an accidental fall or asphyxiation.
Read More...
Health

US: Gallbladder removed through woman's mouth


Physorg
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:39 UTC
An Oregon doctor is the first surgeon in the United States to remove a woman's gallbladder through her mouth.

Dr. Lee Swanstrom performed the surgery last month at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center in Portland, Ore.

Using special endoscopic tools that include a camera, Swanstrom cut a hole in the patient's stomach to reach the gallbladder. He cut away the diseased gallbladder and pulled it through the incision and her throat and out her mouth, the Oregonian newspaper said Friday.

Swanstrom said the surgery has been performed in Brazil but this was the first time it was performed in the United States.
Read More...
Magic Wand

Moon jobs will tax mental health of workers


Rutgers
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:15 UTC
Think your job is tough? Can't wait for summer vacation to "get away from it all"? Just wait, says a Rutgers University - Camden researcher. In the not-too-distant future, some jobs will challenge workers placed far, far away from it all.

On the moon, in fact.

According to Chester Spell, an associate professor of management at the Rutgers School of Business - Camden, the lunar settlements of tomorrow - or, for that matter, the space stations of today - carry long-term implications for the mental health of employees working in isolation for extended periods. Depression and anxiety will reach new levels among those employees, creating mental and cardiovascular health problems as well as a sharp decline in productivity.
Read More...
Health

Higher the mother's blood sugar, higher baby's risk

Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:47 UTC
The higher a pregnant woman's level of blood sugar, the greater the risk to her newborn, whether the mother has diabetes or not, the largest study on the problem suggests.

The findings released yesterday may lead to more women being diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy and given stricter diet advice or medication to lower blood sugar.

The research involved more than 23,000 pregnant women in nine countries. It found a surprisingly strong relationship between the blood sugar levels of the women and the rate of big babies and first-time caesarean sections, said Dr. Boyd Metzger of Northwestern University, lead investigator.

The newborns also were more likely to have low blood sugar levels and high insulin levels if their mothers' blood sugar levels were higher. The problems can lead to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure later in life.
Read More...
Health

Up to 30,000 have new untreatable form of TB: WHO

Stephanie Nebehay
Reuters
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:42 UTC
A new, untreatable form of tuberculosis is striking up to 30,000 people a year, the World Health Organization said on Friday, and warned it could spark an "apocalyptic scenario" if unchecked.
Read More...
Magnify

Can Non-Stick Chemical Spark Allergies?


Life Style Extra
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:10 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A controversial chemical used in Teflon non-stick coatings could be making people more prone to allergies, a study suggests.

Perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) - also used to make all-weather clothing and stain-resistant fabrics and carpets - has already been identified by scientists as "likely" to be carcinogenic to humans.

Now Dr Jean Meade and colleagues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, have shown it may prime the immune system to overreact to allergy triggers (allergens) such as dust mite or dander.

Lab mice given PFOA before being exposed to an egg allergen produced more antibodies and experienced more constriction of their airways than those exposed to the allergen alone.

The results published in Toxicological Sciences suggest one possible explanation for the rising incidence of asthma in children.
Read More...
Red Flag

H5N1 bird flu confirmed at Czech turkey farm


AFP
Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:33 UTC
Czech officials confirmed Thursday the country's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in poultry, at a turkey farm in the centre of the country.

"It is confirmed, it is H5N1," the spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, Zbynek Semerad, told AFP.

Around 1,800 turkeys have already died at the farm at Tisova, near the central town of Usti-nad-Orlici, which has a flock of around 6,000 birds.
Read More...