Archive for the ‘Health’

Study suggests too many invasive heart tests given (AP)

March 11, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

Graphic shows how a cardiac angiogram is administeredAP – A troublingly high number of U.S. patients who are given angiograms to check for heart disease turn out not to have a significant problem, according to the latest study to suggest Americans get an excess of medical tests.

Panel: Women need chance to avoid repeat C-section (AP)

March 11, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of “once a C-section, always a C-section.”

CDC uses shopper-card data to trace salmonella (AP)

March 11, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

In this photo taken March 9, 2010, Raymond Cirimele, 55, displays his Costco membership card outside his home in Chicago. Cirimele is one of at least 245 people in 44 states who have been sickened by a recent salmonella outbreak. Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries and followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat. He said no one asked for his shopper card data, but he would have provided it if someone had. 'I don't have any secrets, so I'm not worried about it,' he said. 'It's kind of like the whole airport security and all that. I'd rather fly on a safe plane.' (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)AP – As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time — the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

Hoped-for drop in childbirth deaths not happening (AP)

March 09, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

This Oct. 2007 family photo provided by Clare Johnson shows Linda Coale holding her son Benjamin in Crownsville, Md. Eleven days after her son Benjamin's birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just as her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do, she dropped dead from a blood clot. (AP Photo/Family Photo)AP – Eleven days after her son Benjamin’s birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just as her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do, she dropped dead from a blood clot.

Researchers: AIDS virus can hide in bone marrow (AP)

March 08, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.

WHO: over 85M African kids get polio vaccination (AP)

March 05, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

A child is given an oral polio vaccine in Angola camp, southern Khartoum in 2007. A campaign to immunize over 85 million children under five against polio will kick off March 6 in west and central Africa in a bid to halt a year-long epidemic, health bodies said in a joint communique.(AFP/File/Isam al-Haj)AP – The World Health Organization says more than 85 million children under 5 in west and central Africa will be vaccinated against polio.

Appetite may be partly linked to germs in the gut (AP)

March 05, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria.

Gene test claims to show what diet works best (AP)

March 05, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – Diet not working? Blame your genes. That’s the pitch behind a new test that claims to show whether people will do better on a low-fat or a low-carb weight loss plan.

Senators: Lift ban on gays donating blood (AP)

March 05, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday.

Cancer society casts more doubt on prostate tests (AP)

March 04, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

Graphic shows incidence rates for prostate cancer between 1975 and 2006 and highest death rates from prostate cancer by race between 2001 andAP – Months after experts discounted the importance of routine mammograms and Pap smears for many women, the American Cancer Society is warning more explicitly than ever that regular testing for prostate cancer is of questionable value too, and can do men more harm than good.

Cancer society casts more doubt on prostate tests (AP)

March 04, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

Graphic shows incidence rates for prostate cancer between 1975 and 2006 and highest death rates from prostate cancer by race between 2001 andAP – Months after experts discounted the importance of routine mammograms and Pap smears for many women, the American Cancer Society is warning more explicitly than ever that regular testing for prostate cancer is of questionable value, too, and can do men more harm than good.

Should men be tested for prostate cancer? (AP)

March 04, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – The American Cancer Society revised its guidelines for prostate cancer screening on Wednesday. The advocacy group is one of many organizations that make such recommendations. Some questions and answers:

Scientists try to break fat-and-disease link (AP)

March 03, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – What if you could be fat but avoid heart disease or diabetes? Scientists trying to break the fat-and-disease link increasingly say inflammation is the key.

Mullahs help promote birth control in Afghanistan (AP)

March 03, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country with the world’s second highest maternal death rate.

Parents say doctors hastened death for dying kids (AP)

March 02, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – It’s a situation too agonizing to contemplate — a child dying and in pain. Now a small but provocative study suggests that doctors may be giving fatal morphine doses to a few children dying of cancer, to end their suffering at their parents’ request.

Hot tip: Target inflammation to ease obesity ills (AP)

March 02, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

AP – What if you could be fat but avoid heart disease or diabetes? Scientists trying to break the fat-and-disease link increasingly say inflammation is the key.

Striking number of obesity risks hit minority kids (AP)

March 01, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

A teen gets help with her bracelet at a special school that helps students lose weight along with academic courses, in California in 2009. Chronic conditions including asthma, obesity and behavior disorders have become more common among US children in recent years, with environmental changes and more diagnoses partly to blame, a study published Tuesday shows.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)AP – The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests.

1 in 4 parents buys unproven vaccine-autism link (AP)

March 01, 2010 By: admin Category: Health No Comments →

Medical journal The Lancet has retracted a 1998 study linking autism with innoculation against three childhood illnesses, a paper that caused a major ethical storm and a backlash against vaccination.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)AP – One in four U.S. parents believes some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, but even many of those worried about vaccine risks think their children should be vaccinated.