Daily MedNews
Get news By email or subscribe to our News feeds.
Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Many doctors may be less than honest with their patients, a new survey finds.
Despite the fact that there are widely accepted standards in the medical profession that state physicians should be straightforward with their patients, particularly when discussing a prognosis, the survey found that many doctors gave overly optimistic predictions to their patients. When it came to admitting medical mistakes or disclosing financial ties to drug companies, many said they have...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY Feb. 8 -- For people struggling with plantar fasciitis --- a painful and sometimes disabling foot condition -- a small, preliminary study suggests that a new type of therapy is more effective than standard cortisone injections in restoring mobility.
So-called "platelet-rich plasma" therapy is injected directly into the foot. It harnesses two main ingredients found in blood -- plasma and platelets -- to promote inflammation, connective-tissue growth and vascular healing. This contrasts...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- An increased risk for coronary artery disease can be passed genetically from father to son on the male Y chromosome, a new study says.
The Y chromosome, a part of DNA present only in men, appears to play a role in the inheritance of coronary artery disease, according to researchers at the University of Leicester in England and their colleagues.
They analyzed DNA from more than 3,000 biologically unrelated men in the United Kingdom and found that 90 percent had variants of Y...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Screening and treating expectant moms for thyroid problems at the end of the first trimester doesn't improve children's IQs at age 3, a new study finds.
Thyroid hormones are crucial for the development of a baby's brain and nervous system, and until the middle of the second trimester, those hormones come from the mother. Since a malfunctioning thyroid in the mother has been associated with mental impairments in her child, researchers reasoned that if they screened for...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is an increasingly worrisome reality, and steps need to be taken to limit the risk that an untreatable strain of the sexually transmitted disease will spread, U.S. researchers warn.
"We're trying to stay a step ahead by putting these warnings and alerts out," said Dr. Gail Bolan, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of sexually transmitted diseases prevention.
Over 600,000 Americans contract gonorrhea every year,...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- More Americans are buying the generic forms of medications, and this practice has made their prescriptions more affordable, according to a new report.
But even though some out-of-pocket drug costs may have declined, paying for prescription drugs remains an obstacle for people with low incomes, public insurance and those with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and mental disorders, noted the researchers at RAND Corp., a nonprofit research...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Fasting, especially when combined with chemotherapy, appears to slow the growth of cancerous tumors in mice, new research suggests.
Experts note that the results of animal studies often don't hold up when tried in humans.
However, researchers have started testing whether fasting can help human patients with breast, ovarian and urinary tract cancer.
In the mouse study, published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that fasting slowed...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Sklice Lotion, a prescription-strength shampoo to treat head lice, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people six months and older, the French product maker Sanofi said.
The shampoo contains ivermectin, which traditionally is prescribed in pill form to treat worm infections, the Associated Press reported.
The product's safety and effectiveness were evaluated in clinical studies involving more than 780 people. After two weeks, most participants...
Read More... Posted Yesterday in Daily MedNews
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Walmart Introduces New Healthy Food Standards, Labels
Walmart said Tuesday it will introduce new standards to identify and label healthy foods for consumers.
Beginning this spring, bright green labels with the words Great for You will appear on the company's own Great Value and Marketside food items and on signs around displays of fresh fruits and vegetables, The New York Times...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Heart failure is linked to thinning of the bones and an increased risk of fractures, a new study indicates.
The findings suggest that aggressive screening for osteoporosis may be important for heart failure patients, the researchers said.
They looked at data from about 45,500 adults who underwent bone mineral density testing for the first time and were followed for up to 10 years. Of those people, 1,841 had recent-onset heart failure.
After the researchers adjusted for...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Routinely giving infants a new vaccine that guards against meningitis appears to be effective, a new study indicates.
The multi-center clinical trial of almost 1,900 infants found that administration of routine infant immunizations with a vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis -- a bacterium that can cause serious disease such as sepsis and meningitis -- was effective against meningococcal strains and caused minimal interference with infants' response to routine...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Despite earlier research that suggested the rotavirus vaccine increased the risk of intussusception -- when a portion of the intestine slides forward into itself -- a large new study finds this is not the case.
"The findings of our study are reassuring and add to the evidence that the benefits of rotavirus vaccine, in terms of reducing doctor's visits hospitalizations and deaths from rotavirus disease, is far greater than any low-level risk for intussusception that may...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- New antibiotics are needed to help treat bladder infections, but the drug cefpodoxime, once thought promising, doesn't appear to be up to the task, a new study indicates.
Bladder infections, more common in women than men, are usually treated with a short course of antibiotics. But overuse of mainstay medications, such as ciprofloxacin, has led to increasing rates of antibiotic resistance.
"We do have antibiotics to treat bladder infections, but due to increasing rates of...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- The risk of dying from a hormone receptor-positive breast cancer increases with age, according to new research. And one reason might be that older women with breast cancer are undertreated compared to their younger peers.
For women between the ages of 65 and 74, the risk of dying from breast cancer was 25 percent higher than for women under 65. For those 75 and older, the risk of death was 63 percent higher than for women under 65, according to the new study.
"This study...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- In certain people with Parkinson's disease, mutations in the parkin gene disrupt the proper function of dopamine, the brain chemical that controls body movement.
The finding could lead to new treatments and screening methods for the disease, according to the University at Buffalo researchers.
Using live human neurons in the laboratory, the team found that parkin mutations hinder the actions of dopamine and produce more "free radicals," harmful molecules that destroy...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Adult smokers are twice as likely to develop oral health problems as those who have kicked the habit, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found.
Compared to people who never smoked, current smokers are four times more likely to develop oral conditions, such as mouth cancers, gum disease and cavities.
The CDC investigators also found that smokers between the ages of 18 and 64 are nearly 1.5 times as likely as former smokers and more than...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- A drug used to prevent breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease appears to cause bone loss in some postmenopausal women, a new study finds.
The drug, Aromasin (exemestane), has been shown to reduce the odds of breast cancer by 65 percent, but it also worsens bone density by about three times in older women who are taking it, Canadian researchers report.
"The drug did affect bone density at the hip and spine," said lead researcher Dr. Angela Cheung, a senior...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Americans still eat way too much salt, and much of it comes from dietary staples such as bread, poultry, cheese and pasta, U.S. health officials reported Tuesday.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said 90 percent of Americans consume too much salt on a daily basis.
Ten types of foods account for 44 percent of salt consumption, the CDC researchers said. These include bread and rolls; deli meats and cured meats; pizza; fresh and processed poultry;...
Read More... Posted 2 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 -- Surgery can significantly improve seizure control and quality of life among people with epilepsy, according to a study stretching over 26 years.
"This study may be the longest follow-up of epilepsy surgery patients in that it spans three decades, during which there were several eras of neuroimaging [brain-scanning] techniques," said Dr. Cynthia Harden, chief of the division of epilepsy and electroencephalography at the Cushing Neuroscience Institute, part of North Shore-LIJ...
Read More... Posted 3 Days Ago in Daily MedNews
MONDAY, Feb. 6 -- When it comes to the treatment of type 2 diabetes, the first line of defense is lifestyle changes such as losing weight and exercising more often.
But, if those lifestyle changes don't get blood sugar levels under control, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends the drug metformin as the first oral treatment that should be given.
If metformin alone can't control blood sugar levels, the ACP advises combining metformin with another blood-sugar lowering medication....
Read More...
