Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest featured health news - the top storieshttp://www.medicalnewstoday.comadmin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241500.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241500.phpResearchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that anti-obesity drugs together with lifestyle advice are effective in reducing weight and BMI. In the paper published in Obesity Review, Dr. Laura Gray and her team from Leicester University's Department of Health Sciences assessed the effectiveness of anti -obesity drugs and a modified lifestyle on weight loss and body mass index...Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241480.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241480.phpFindings of a report published Online First in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals shows that men who smoke seem to be linked with a more rapid cognitive decline. According to background information, smoking is more and more renown as a risk factor for dementia in the elderly...Smoking / Quit Smoking Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241483.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241483.phpA report published Online First in Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, shows that under the revised criteria for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, many patients who are currently diagnosed with very mild or mild Alzheimer disease dementia could potentially be reclassified as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI). According to John C. Morris, M.D...Alzheimer's / Dementia Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241444.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241444.phpA drug approved for the treatment of cancer appears to quickly reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's in mice, according to a new study from the US published in the journal Science on Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bexarotene as a treatment for cutaneous T cell lymphoma, a type of skin cancer, in 2000...Alzheimer's / Dementia Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241454.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241454.phpFasting was as effective as chemotherapy in delaying growth of specific tumors in mice and boosted the effectiveness of chemotherapy on melanoma, glioma, and breast cancer cells...Cancer / Oncology Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241440.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241440.phpResearchers measured people's physical and psychological responses while they used Facebook, performed a stressful task, or just relaxed, and found each of these activities appears to have a different effect on mood and arousal. Dr...Psychology / Psychiatry Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241442.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241442.phpOver the last three years, gonorrhea has become increasingly harder to treat with antibiotics, making it now a reality that perhaps we may be facing a gonorrhea strain for which no current medications would be effective, researchers from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine reported in NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine)...Sexual Health / STDs Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241441.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241441.phpA recent study published by The Lancet suggests that males with a certain variant on their Y-chromosome are at a 50% higher risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD)...Cardiovascular / Cardiology Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241365.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241365.phpA study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that nearly all individuals in the U.S. consume too much sodium than the recommended daily allowance (RDA). The majority of the sodium derives from common grocery store and restaurant items. The report is published on the first Tuesday of the month, as part of the CDC journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report...Nutrition / Diet Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241435.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241435.phpA study published online in the February 6 issue of Pediatrics reveals that programs that help parents during the early years of their child's life may help prevent childhood obesity. At present, 1 out of 5 children in the U.S. is classified as obese. Compared to children of normal weight, overweight children are five times more likely to be obese by the time they reach their teenage years...Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241438.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241438.phpWhen William Murphy, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and rehabilitation at University of Wisconsin-Madison works with some of the most powerful tools in biology, his approach is to develop tools that fit together...Bones / Orthopedics Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241439.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241439.phpMild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease patients who practice Tai Chi were found to experience significant benefits, including better posture, fewer falls, and improved walking ability, researchers from the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) reported in NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine)...Parkinson's Disease Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241424.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241424.phpA study in the February 8 edition of JAMA shows that postmenopausal women who suffer from hormone receptor-positive breast cancer have a higher death risk of breast cancer as they get older. Background information in the article states that: "Breast cancer is the leading contributor to cancer incidence and cancer mortality in women worldwide, with 1,383,500 new cases in 2008...Breast Cancer Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241425.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241425.phpAfter an evaluation of 800,000 doses of pentavalent rotavirus vaccinations in U.S. infants, researchers reported in the February 8 issue of JAMA that there is no increased risk of intussusception after vaccination, despite some previous data indicating that those infants who received the vaccine were at potential increased risk...Pediatrics / Children's Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241426.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241426.phpAccording to a study published in the February 8 issue of JAMA, cefpodoxime, an antibiotic used as a short-term therapy in women with uncomplicated bladder infection (cystitis), failed to meet criteria for non-inferiority in comparison to ciprofloxacin. There have been concerns that ciprofloxacin, classed as a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, is overused, resulting in an increase in resistance rates...Urology / Nephrology Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241423.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241423.phpA study in the February 8 issue of JAMA reports that routine infant immunizations with a vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis, a bacterium that causes serious diseases like sepsis and meningitis, proved effective against meningococcal strains and displayed minimal interference with the response to the routine vaccinations...Pediatrics / Children's Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241377.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241377.php A new study published this week shows there has been a big drop in levels of trans-fatty acids in the US bloodstream. From 2000 to 2009 it fell by 58%. This is the first time researchers from the US Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been able to measure trans-fats in human blood. They write about their findings in a letter to the Editor of JAMA...Nutrition / Diet Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241384.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241384.php In 2008, rates of teen pregnancies in the US reached their lowest level in nearly 40 years...Pediatrics / Children's Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241373.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241373.phpBy reverse engineering human skin cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and then coaxing them to become neural dopamine cells, scientists in the US have developed a way to study a genetic cause of Parkinson's disease in lab-made neurons...Parkinson's Disease Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241376.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241376.php Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have conducted a recent study, published in Science Translational Medicine which focuses on gene therapy for congenital blindness. The scientists were able to improve sight in 3 adult patients who had previously been treated in one eye...Eye Health / Blindness