Babies born to teenage girls who become pregnant after gastric bypass surgery may have a higher risk of birth defects. The finding is based on a small number of cases, and some researchers doubt the link. Surgery that rearranges the stomach and intestines can reduce the absorption of some vitamins and nutrients from food. This […]
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A new study in the United States found that insulin breathed in through the nose improves memory in people with Alzheimer's disease (dementia). Patients took insulin for four months, and their memory improved in tests over the following two months. The researchers called the results promising and worth testing in clinical trials. Alzheimer's disease affects […]
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This quick test of ten questions shows some features of your personality, especially how other people see you. Get a pen and paper and write down the number of your answer to each question. 1. When do you feel at your best? 2. You usually walk 3. When you talk to people, you 4. When […]
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Flu drugs act only on influenza viruses, not on the viruses that cause similar illnesses, and they should be prescribed under close medical supervision. Four drugs are currently licensed in the US to treat flu: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. Most flu viruses respond to all of them, but some strains have become resistant to […]
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Active ingredient: cetirizine hydrochloride This medicine is an antihistamine used to treat allergies of many kinds, or to prevent them. It does not help in a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), where an adrenaline (epinephrine) injection may be needed. How it acts in the body Only very small amounts of cetirizine reach the brain, so it […]
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Against AIDS, not against people with AIDS. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a group of symptoms caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which destroys the immune system. This weakens the body's defences and makes it easy prey for all kinds of infections (called opportunistic infections) and cancers. The virus passes on when mucous […]
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Practising medicine has become dangerous in China, The Lancet reports. A doctor and a nurse were fatally stabbed by the son of a cancer patient who had died more than 13 years earlier, and a paediatrician was badly injured after jumping from a fifth-floor window to escape the family of a newborn baby who had […]
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The United States formally apologised last Friday for research carried out between 1946 and 1948 in which people in Guatemala were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the research "reprehensible". Their joint statement added: "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologise to […]
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As an Arab proverb says, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Here is a set of candles for parents. 1. The umbilical cord Keep a baby's cord stump clean and dry. Salt, oil, powder and antiseptic mixtures all help cause infection of the navel and problems we can do […]
Read moreThe Lancet Neurology reports that levodopa, the drug used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, causes loss of function and dyskinesia with long-term use: being unable to control the limbs, with involuntary movements. Clinical studies suggest that pulsatile stimulation of the receptors on the receiving nerve cell causes dyskinesia, but the exact mechanism has […]
Read moreThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new type of contraceptive pill that contains folic acid, one of the B vitamins. Folic acid is known to help form new cells, and it is given to pregnant women to prevent serious birth defects of the nervous system, such as a neural tube that […]
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Is the swine flu pandemic over in the United States? Federal health officials won't say so, but on Friday they reported that, for the fourth week running, no state had widespread flu activity. Cases in the US have been falling steadily since October. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says swine flu cases are […]
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