Previous Medical News
2010/01/02
1. Fewer states seeing widespread swine flu (CDC, 12/31/09)
Swine flu was widespread in only four states last week, indicating the fall wave of illness is still declining. The four states are Delaware, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia. Swine flu vaccine is increasingly easy to get, with more than 118 million doses now available.
2. Swine flu not as catchy as other pandemic strains (New England Journal of Medicine, 12/31/09)
Swine flu is less contagious than the novel viruses that have caused big world outbreaks in the past. If someone in your home has swine flu, your odds of catching it are about one in eight, although children are twice as susceptible as adults.
3. Ginkgo biloba does not slow cognitive decline (Journal of the American Medical Association, 12/29/09)
The herbal supplement ginkgo biloba does not slow cognitive decline. The investigators found no evidence for an effect of Ginkgo biloba on global cognitive change and no evidence of effect on specific cognitive domains of memory, visual-spatial construction, language, attention and psychomotor speed, and executive functions.
4. Stem Cell Research Gets a Boost From Vitamin C (Stem Cell, 12/24/09)
Vitamin C is often recommended to help fight the common cold and heal wounds, but the antioxidant might have another benefit: it appears to help adult cells generate embryonic-like stem cells. This can be considered a reversal of the aging process at the cellular level.
5. A1C Blood Test OK for Diabetes Diagnosis (American Diabetes Association, 1/10)
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is recommending that a simple blood test currently used to assess whether diabetes is under control also be used to diagnose the disease. Patients do not need to fast before the test is given, and it is far less likely to identify clinically irrelevant fluctuations in blood sugar because it measures average blood glucose levels over several months. People with A1C levels between 5.7% and 6.4% will be considered to have pre-diabetes and those with levels of 6.5% or higher will be considered to have diabetes.
6. First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US (Associated Press, 12/27/09)
Oswaldo Juarez is a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. He has America’s first case of a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of tuberculosis called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB. It is so rare that only a handful of other people in the world are thought to have had it. In December 2007, he was sent to A.G. Holley State Hospital, a 60-year-old massive building of brown concrete surrounded by a chain-link fence, just south of West Palm Beach. Holley is the nation's last-standing TB sanitarium, a quarantine hospital that is now managing new and virulent forms of the disease. His treatment cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $500,000. In July, at age 21 — 19 months after checking in — Juarez swallowed his last pills, packed a few small suitcases and wheeled them down the hospital's long corridor and walked out of the sanitarium.
7. Pressure rises to stop antibiotics in agriculture (AP, 12/28/09)
The widespread practice of feeding livestock antibiotics allows animals to grow faster, but they can also develop drug-resistant infections that are passed on to people.
8. Nerve stimulation ineffective for low back pain (Neurology, 1/12/10)
According to this study, people with chronic low back pain who seek relief with transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation or TENS are wasting their time and money.
9. Personalized music therapy may ease tinnitus (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 12/29/09)
Individually designed music therapy may help reduce noise levels in people suffering from tinnitus, or ear ringing. The researchers designed musical treatments adapted to the musical tastes of patients with ear-ringing and then stripped out sound frequencies that matched the individual's tinnitus frequency. After a year of listening to these "notched" musical therapies, patients reported a distinct decrease in the loudness of ringing compared with those who had listened to non-tailored placebo music.
10. Refrigerated breast milk keeps integrity for 4 days (Journal of Pediatrics, 1/10)
Breast milk can be refrigerated for up to four days without losing its nutritional value or allowing bacteria to build up.
11. Childhood smoke exposure increases emphysema chances in adulthood (American Journal of Epidemiology, 12/09)
Children exposed regularly to secondhand tobacco smoke at home show increased likelihood of developing emphysema in adulthood – and, in most cases, lungs may never heal completely from early-life exposure. Emphysema, which causes destruction of alveolar walls - the place where oxygen is exchanged with carbon dioxide, brings about a reduction in the elastic function of the lungs.
12. Many Women Quit Breast-Feeding Early (Pediatrics, 1/10)
Though a growing percentage of American moms start their infants on human milk, relatively few continue breast-feeding for the baby's first six months of life, let alone an entire year. Returning to work soon after giving birth presents a major barrier to successful breast-feeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women breast-feed exclusively for six months and continue breast-feeding for at least an infant's first year of life. Of infants born in 2006, 43 percent were breast-feeding at 6 months and 23 percent at 12 months. Just 14 percent, however, had been exclusively breast-fed for six months.
13. New Gene Tied to Childhood Asthma (New England Journal of Medicine, 12/28/09)
A newly identified gene may play a critical role in triggering childhood asthma and offer new opportunities for developing more effective asthma treatments. Researchers say the gene, DENND1B, affects cells and other signaling molecules thought to be involved in the immune system overreaction that occurs in childhood asthma.
14. Late-night teens ‘face greater depression risk’ (Sleep, 1/10)
A study of 12 to 18-year-olds has found that those with bedtimes after midnight were 24% more likely to have depression than those who went to bed before 10:00 pm. And those who slept fewer than five hours a night had a 71% higher risk of depression than those who slept eight hours. Teenagers need at least 9 hours a night of sleep.
15. Another study finds no MMR-autism link (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 5/10)
A new study provides further evidence that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of autism. This latest study included 96 Polish children ages 2 to 15 who had been diagnosed with autism. Researchers compared each child with two healthy children the same age and sex who had been treated by the same doctor. Some of the children had received the MMR vaccine, while others had not been vaccinated at all or had received a vaccine against measles only. Children who had received the MMR vaccine actually had a lower risk of autism than their unvaccinated peers. Nor was there any evidence of an increased autism risk with the measles-only vaccine.
16. Recall: Tylenol for Arthritis Caplets Recalled (McNeil Consumer Healthcare, 12/29/09)
All available lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplet 100-count bottles, packaged with a distinctive red cap, are being recalled. There’s an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that’s associated with nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The odor is caused by a compound known as 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, which is believed to be the breakdown of a chemical used to treat wooden pallets that transport and store packaging materials.
17. Recall: Oklahoma Company Recalls 248,000 Pounds of Beef (National Steak and Poultry, 12/28/09)
National Steak and Poultry is voluntarily recalling about 248,000 pounds of beef it said might be contaminated with a strain of E. coli bacteria. The company said the meat could be linked to illnesses in six states (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington).
