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Prenatal Smoking Raises Asthma Risk in Offspring

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Women who smoke during pregnancy raises the risk of wheezing and asthma in preschool children, warns a new study. "Epidemiological evidence suggests that exposure to maternal smoking during fetal and early life increases the risk of childhood wheezing and asthma, but earlier studies were not able to differentiate the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure," said lead author Asa Neuman. MD, of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet ...

Indian Curry Spice Prevents Rift Valley Fever Virus

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Curcumin, present in the popular Indian spice turmeric, holds promise in fighting against the devastating viruses, according to researchers. According to Aarthi Narayanan, lead investigator of the study from Mason's National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, curcumin stopped the potentially deadly Rift Valley Fever virus from multiplying in infected cells. Mosquito-borne Rift Valley Fever virus (RVF) is an acute, fever-causing virus that ...

Depression - Symptom Evaluation

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Depression occurs due to alterations in the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Fasting During Ramadan Does Not Cause Preterm Delivery

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A study conducted in Lebanon found that the chances of preterm delivery are not increased if a woman fasts during the holy month of Ramadan. However, there is a chance that the baby could be smaller. The results of the study were published in a recent issue of iBJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology/i. The study included 201 women from Beirut in their third trimester who fasted during the day for the entire month of Ramadan. ...

Ban on Smoking in Czech Restaurants: Report

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A blanket ban on smoking in restaurants contemplated by The Czech Republic is a step that would put the country on par with its EU peers, Czech media reported. "We will submit a new version of the law, the toughest ever here -- a complete ban on smoking in restaurants," the Lidove noviny broadsheet quoted deputy health minister Martin Plisek as saying. Under the current law, restaurants are free to decide whether to permit smoking inside. Slapping ...

Golden Age of Prostate Cancer Treatment Hailed as Fourth Drug in 2 Years Extends Life: Study

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Golden age in prostrate cancer has been hailed by the head of UK's leading cancer research organisation as prostrate cancer drug discovery results are published for the fourth time in two years. A study in the iNew England Journal of Medicine/i today shows the drug enzalutamide can significantly extend life and improve quality of life in men with advanced prostate cancer - in findings that could further widen the treatment The Institute of Cancer ...

New Microscope Capable of Detecting Cancer Inside Body

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Microscopes, used to see the single living cells are now being used to diagnose illness in hard-to-reach areas of the body. This is a groundbreaking technology, but specialists need improved, standardized guidelines to advance diagnostic accuracy, said NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center's Dr. Michel Kahaleh. Dr. Kahaleh often threads a tiny microscope into the narrow bile ducts that connect the liver to the small intestine to ...

Drink Water for Relief from Headache

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Studies claim that drinking water regularly can reduce the severity of headaches and migraines. The findings were published in the European Journal of Neurology suggests that dehydration is one of the significant factors in the build-up to attacks that can leave the sufferers incapacitated for days. In a study conducted by the scientists from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, they observed that drinking around seven glasses of water a day is enough to ...

Beetroot Juice Rose on Popularity Charts in Olympic Village

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Beetroot juice and tart cherry juice scored high on popularity among sportsmen at the Olympic village in the hope that it would give their performance a boost at the various sporting events. Beetroot juice was clearly preferred by many track and field athletes, as they felt it gave them a 3% improvement in performance. Beetroot juice is thought to improve blood and oxygen flow to muscles, while also helping muscles use the oxygen effectively. Participants ...

How Powerful is Your Punch?

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A new study by researchers from Imperial College and University College London seems to suggest that the power in your punch does not depend on the strength of your muscles but relies more on brain power. A comparative study on those trained in karate with a black belt status, and physically fit members of the public during punching sessions, showed that connections between areas of the brain had a direct link with punching ability. It has more to do with timing ...

Achilles Heel for Cancer Discovered

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New class of genes that serve as an Achilles' heel for many forms of cancer have been discovered by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The researchers identified 56 such genes, only a few of which had previously been identified as potential targets for cancer therapy. Unlike most such targets, these genes don't cause normal cells to turn cancerous. Instead, they are essential to all cells but have been disrupted ...

EU to Consider Plain-packaging Law for Tobacco

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The European Commission could shortly make legislative proposals to move towards plain packaging for tobacco products. After a ground-breaking Australian court ruling requiring cigarettes and other tobacco products to be sold in un-branded uniform packaging with graphic health warnings from December 1, a spokesman for the EU executive said "the Commission is following this development in Australia closely." "We are working on a proposal to revise ...

Over 10 Infants Die in Tirupathi Hospital, Say Sources

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More than ten infants die in a government hospital in Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh. The infants died due to poor treatment and lack of medical infrastructure at of the S V R Ruia Government General Hospital. A relative of one of the victims, Subbamma, said that many parents had lost their children as they were not provided with medical treatment on time. "Deaths occurred due to improper and delay in treatment. The doctors are saying that ...

Autism Patient Denied Heart Transplant

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Twenty-three year old Paul from Pennsylvania is autistic and also has a severe problem with his heart. Doctors had informed his family in 2008 that he needs a heart transplant to survive. Recently, Paul's family was shocked to learn that Paul had been denied a heart transplant due to his psychiatric condition. Apparently, he was not included in the waiting list of patients for heart transplant. The reason for such a decision by the hospital was due to ...

Doctors Helped by Color-Coded Markers In Diagnosing Neural Diseases

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Several different though related degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeld-Jacobs are marked by sticky plaques of proteins called amyloids. The symptoms of these disorders overlap and methods to diagnose and monitor them are not very advanced. To solve this problem, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have devised several new fluorescent probes that change color depending on what type of amyloid they encounter. ...

Certain Medical Students More Likely to Work as Doctors in Their Own Countries: Study

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A published study suggests that certain medical students may be more likely to stay in their own countries or work in rural areas of their own countries when they qualify as doctors. Given that many low income countries have insufficient doctors to meet their needs, particularly in rural areas, the authors suggest that policy makers could use this evidence to adjust entrance criteria for medical schools that favour subsequent practice in less well served areas ...

BMJ Editorial: Performance Pay for Physicians may Backfire

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Leading experts in health policy and behavioral economics argue that pay-for-performance P4P) schemes are likely to do more harm than good. Such schemes financially reward doctors and hospitals for hitting specific, numerical targets in such matters as preventing hospital readmissions or prescribing certain drugs. The argument can be found in a cautionary editorial alongside a related article in a recent issue of the British medical journal BMJ. Such schemes are ...

In Treatment of HIV Patients Nurses as Effective as Doctors

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According to a new study, nurse-centred care of HIV patients can be just as safe and effective as care delivered by doctors and has a number of specific health benefits. The study was led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Cape Town (UCT). Published today in The iLancet/i, the research shows that neither survival rates nor virus suppression reduced when nurses administered antiretroviral drugs to patients in South Africa. Health benefits ...

Mayo Clinic: 'Strawberry' Birthmarks Grow Rapidly When Babies Just Weeks Old

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Researchers have found that strawberry-shaped birthmarks called infantile hemangiomas grow rapidly in infants much earlier than previously thought. The researchers are from Mayo Clinic and University of California, San Francisco. Their study, published online in the journal iPediatrics/i, suggests that babies with complication-causing hemangiomas should be immediately referred to dermatologists for further evaluation. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: For multimedia resources ...

Smartphone-Driven Cars Come Closer to Reality: Researchers

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In the process of developing a technology that will enable smartphones to drive cars are scientists from Australia. Researchers have said that they will be road testing a vehicle which uses a phone's satellite navigation technology and camera to drive along the street within a year. "When I get into the car I simply place my mobile phone in the dashboard, facing the camera out to the front," Sky News quoted Dr Jun Jo from Griffith University on Australia's ...

Health Consequences of Meltdown And Damage to Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants in Japan Examined By Study

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The results of two studies report on the psychological status of workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan everal months after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The report can be found in the August 15 issue of iJAMA/i and it also talks about the amount of internal radiation exposure among residents of a city north of the power plant that experienced a meltdown. As reported in a Research Letter, Jun Shigemura, M.D., Ph.D., of the National ...

Success of Engineered Tissue Depends on Where It's Grown: Research

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In clinical trials, tissue implants made of cells grown on a sponge-like scaffold to help heal arteries scarred by atherosclerosis and other vascular disease. However, it has been unclear why some implants work better than others. MIT researchers led by Elazer Edelman, the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, have now shown that implanted cells' therapeutic properties depend on their shape, which is determined by the type ...