Category: News Archive

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a rise in recreational water illnesses in 2007, and expects more in coming years. These illnesses spread by breathing in, swallowing or touching germs in the water of swimming pools, lakes, rivers or the sea. To highlight healthy swimming habits, the CDC declared 19–25 May […]

On 30 June 2008 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a report on the worldwide switch from albuterol (salbutamol) inhalers containing CFCs to inhalers containing HFA. Pat Clarke of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said albuterol inhalers using chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) would no longer be used after 31 December 2008 and […]

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people over 60 be vaccinated against shingles (herpes zoster), which causes severe, sometimes long-lasting pain. The CDC recommends one dose of the shingles vaccine, Zostavax, for adults aged 60 and over, even if they have had shingles before. In people over 60 the vaccine […]

Women taking raloxifene seem less likely to develop invasive breast cancer that is oestrogen-receptor positive than women not taking it, according to data published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The drug didn't lower the risk of non-invasive breast cancer or of oestrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer. In a study testing raloxifene in women with, […]

Resistance to chemotherapy drugs is a big problem. In some cases resistance is linked with changes in how cells control translation, the step in which proteins are made. Researchers have found drugs that make mouse cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy and reduce resistance. The researchers tested small molecules for their ability to block the […]

Bayer has announced a new liquid formulation of sargramostim (Leukine), approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, which no longer contains the added EDTA in the 500 µg vials. The old liquid product, sold from January 2006 to January 2008, had been linked with side effects including fainting. "EDTA binds many metals, mainly calcium, […]

According to a report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, patients with chronic inflammatory muscle diseases were more likely to have taken statins than healthy controls. Some case reports had suggested that statins could trigger chronic muscle diseases, including dermatomyositis and polymyositis, but no earlier studies had examined the link. Dr L. Sailler and […]

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine studied nerve cells in the part of the rat brain linked with coding and storing memories. Each nerve cell connects with at least a thousand others through synapses. "When a person or animal learns and stores what it has learned, these connections become stronger or weaker depending […]

Pregnant women who spend time on farms may help protect their newborn babies from developing allergies. Researchers in Germany studied 18 women who lived on farms and 59 who didn't, and found that farm exposure affects the babies' regulatory T cells. These cells dampen immune responses, keeping the immune system in balance and helping it […]

A new study shows that oxygen treatment may do more harm than good in some cases. Brain damage from lack of oxygen, often during difficult births or near-drowning, is one of the most common causes of death and lasting nerve damage in babies and children. The standard treatment had been to give 100% oxygen to […]

The level of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) can predict, to within a year or two, the age at which women aged 30 and over will reach the menopause, and so help assess their ability to conceive. Researcher Dr Jeroen van Disseldorp told WebMD that the first study showed AMH predicts the age of menopause better than […]