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Quiz on Skin Cancer

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The skin is the largest organ of the body, comprising of two main layers - the epidermis and the dermis. This quiz on skin cancer will help you brush up your knowledge on this topic.

Tobacco Products' Ads to be Banned in Kerala

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Kerala is set to ban advertisements of tobacco products, says Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. "The government will take all legal measures to reduce tobacco consumption, such as banning advertisements and increasing taxes. Tax on cigarettes has been raised from 15 to 20 percent in the state budget. This was done to bring down consumption," Chandy said at a function here on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day. "Although the ...

Billions Worldwide Suffer from Major Tooth Decay, Says Report

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Billions of people across the world are suffering from dental problems, shows report published in the iJournal of Dental Research/i. Professor Marcenes of the Institute of Dentistry at Queen Mary led an international research team investigating oral health as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 study. The report shows that oral conditions affect as many as 3.9bn people worldwide - over half the total population. Untreated tooth decay ...

Engineered Cells Heal Mice With MS-like Disease

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Genetically engineered immune cells were found to promote healing in mice infected with multiple sclerosis-like disease, say researchers. Currently, there are few good medications for MS, an autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects some 400,000 people in the United States, and none that reverse progress of the disease. Dr. Michael Carrithers, assistant professor of neurology, led a team that created a specially designed macrophage - an ...

New Drug That Reduce Tissue Damage After Heart Attack

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A new drug that may reduce damage to the heart after a heart attack has been developed by a team of U.K researchers. The drug named MitoSNO has already been tested successfully on mice, and is about to be tested on humans. A heart attack deprives the tissues of the heart, brain and other vital organs of oxygen during the event, and once blood flow to the tissues is restored suddenly after the attack, drastic damage occurs. This is because of the production ...

Mussel Oil: New Hope for Asthma Patients

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Green-lipped mussel oil was found to improve lung function and reduce airway inflammation in asthmatics who experience exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, finds study. Timothy Mickleborough, professor in the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, said his findings are similar to his studies involving fish oil but required a much smaller dosage of the supplement. His new study found a 59 percent improvement in lung function after an airway challenge, ...

New Malaria Vaccine Cuts Infections

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A new vaccine developed by Japanese researchers reduces the risk of malaria developing in humans by more than two-thirds. The disease, which is carried by parasite-bearing mosquitoes, kills around 650,000 people each year, mostly African children under five, according to the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO). While there are a number of preventative medicines already in use, scientists say drug-resistance is growing. Researchers from ...

General Anaesthesia Boosts Risk of Dementia

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In elderly, general anaesthesia increases the risk of dementia by more than a third, reveals study. Researchers led by Francois Sztark at the University of Bordeaux in southwestern France analysed data from a long-term study into cognitive decline covering 9,300 elderly people in three French cities. The volunteers -- average age 75 -- were interviewed when they were recruited into the study and then two, four, seven and 10 years afterwards. The ...

Blood Test may Help Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease Early

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Blood samples could help detect Alzheimer's disease in earliest stage, say researchers. They envision a test that would detect distinct metabolic signatures in blood plasma that are synonymous with the disease - years before patients begin showing cognitive decline. Researchers analyzed cerebrospinal fluid and plasma samples from 45 people in the Mayo Clinic Study on Aging and Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Center (15 with no cognitive decline, ...

Link Between Thyroid Disorders and Risk of Pregnancy Complications Identified

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Pregnant women with thyroid disorders face an increased risk of preterm birth and other pregnancy-related complications, finds study published in iJournal of Clinical Endocrinology (and) Metabolism/i (iJCEM/i). The risk of complications is heightened for both women who have underactive thyroid glands - a condition known as hypothyroidism - and those with overactive thyroid glands, or hyperthyroidism. Up to four percent of all pregnancies involve mothers ...

Yoga may Help Ease Hypertension

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Yoga could help decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension, says study. "So far it looks very promising that yoga might be a useful therapy for patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension who want to avoid using medication," study researcher Dr. Debbie Cohen, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, told MedPage Today. "This could also be used as an adjunct to other lifestyle modifications," she said. The study included ...

In Common Medical Emergencies on Flights Travelers Play Valuable Role Assisting Crew: Study

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Medical emergencies during commercial airline travel can be a frightening experience. In spite of this, most situations are well-treated by other passengers and flight attendants, in collaboration with consulting physicians on the ground. A University of Pittsburgh study published today in the iNew England Journal of Medicine/i found that doctors, nurses and other medical professionals on the aircraft helped to treat sick fellow passengers in three-fourths of the emergencies ...

Most Comprehensive Analyses of NSAIDs and Coxibs Published With Collaboration From A Professor

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The most comprehensive analyses of the benefits and risks of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which include cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors (coxibs) was published in the current issue of the iLancet/i by Charles H.Hennekens, MD, DrPH, the first Sir Richard Doll professor and senior academic advisor to the dean in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. Hennekens and colleagues from around the world, under the direction ...

Cholesterol Sets Off Chaotic Blood Vessel Growth: Study

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A study has identified a protein that is responsible for regulating blood vessel growth by mediating the efficient removal of cholesterol from the cells. The study was held at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Unregulated development of blood vessels can feed the growth of tumors. The work, led by Yury Miller, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego, will be published in the advance online edition of the journal iNature/i ...

Saturated Fats Do Not Yield Better Bacon: Research

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A recent paper suggests producers may want to adjust pig diets when including distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The paper was published in the iJournal of Animal Science/i. Some producers believe that feeding pigs saturated fats will undo the fat-softening effects of DDGS. Firmer fat means longer-lasting pork. But researchers from the University of Illinois found that including saturated fats in DDGS diets makes no difference in fat quality. The ...

New Diagnostic Technology may Lead to Individualized Treatments for Prostate Cancer: Research

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A research team has enhanced a device they developed to identify and "grab" circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, that break away from cancers and enter the blood, often leading to the spread of cancer to other parts of the body. The team was jointly led by scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles. If more studies confirm the technology's effectiveness, the NanoVelcro Chip device could enable doctors to access and identify ...

Researcher Seeks Decision Making Preferences Among Patients With Heart Attacks

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In a research letter, Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., S.M. and his colleagues "sought to investigate preferences for participation in the decision-making process among individuals hospitalized with an acute myocardial infarction ([AMI] or heart attack)." Harlan M. Krumholz is from Yale University School of Medicine. The researchers combined data from two similar AMI registries (TRIUMPH and PREMIER) which resulted in 6,636 patients in the study sample who were asked about who should ...

People With Anorexia Walk as If They are Larger Than They Actually are

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A new study conducted by Dutch researchers reveals that people who suffer from anorexia walk as if they are larger than they actually are. Researchers at Utrecht University observed 39 women, 19 with anorexia and 20 without the condition, as they walked through doors of varying sizes while performing a distracting memorization task. The researchers found that while the women who did not suffer from anorexia started to walk sideways when the openings were 25 percent ...

Researchers Get Green Signal to Develop Synthetic Blood

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Scottish researchers who are currently hoping to develop synthetic human blood have been given a license to use stem cells to manufacture the blood. Researchers at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, Edinburgh University and Roslin Cells have been granted the license by UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), taking them another step closer to conducting clinical trials to test the synthetic blood. The study is being ...

"Academic" Genes Identified

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An international team of researchers has identified the set of genes that are linked with academic performance, a new study published in the journal Science reveals. The study involved researchers from Cornell University, New York University, Erasmus University, Harvard University, the University of Queensland and the University of Bristol who looked at more than 125,000 adults from United States, Australia and 13 western European countries. The researchers ...

Sexual Abuse in Childhood Linked to Food Addiction Among Women

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A new study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests that women who are physically and sexually abused during their childhood were more likely to suffer from food addiction in their adulthood. The researchers used data from the Nurses' Health Study II which involved more than 57,300 women. The researchers found that those who were either physically or sexually abused in their childhood were 90 percent more likely to suffer from food addiction ...

Salvadoran Woman Denied Abortion to Undergo C-Section

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A premature Caesarean section has been planned next week for a chronically ill Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion despite her high-risk pregnancy. "I feel very well, because now they are going to do it," she told AFP by telephone, referring to the premature delivery that has been scheduled to take place when she is 26 weeks pregnant in a country with strict abortion laws. The woman, 22, suffers from lupus, a disease that weakens her immune system, ...

Relief for Locals at Free Health Camp in Maoist Affected Area in Odisha

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Locals and the tribals got some relief at the free medical camp in Maoist infested area of Odisha's Malkangiri district as the doctors treated them for various ailments. Musan Nayak, a local said, "Those who have money can go to the district headquarter of Malkangiri. We are poor farmers only. This camp is helping people like us, who don't have money. The farmers are, moreover, not educated and they do not take the patients to the doctors. So, this camp is educating ...

Faster Disease Diagnosis Possible Via New Single Virus Detection Techniques

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Clinicians try to gauge how many viruses are packed into a certain volume of blood or other bodily fluid in order to test the severity of viral infections. This measurement, called viral load, helps doctors diagnose or monitor chronic viral diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. However, the standard methods used for these tests are only able to estimate the number of viruses in a given volume of fluid. Now two independent teams have developed new ...

Women Less at Risk Than Men for Health-care-associated Infections: Columbia Nursing Study

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A growing body of evidence that women are less likely to contract bloodstream or surgical site infections than their male counterparts was supported by a new study from Columbia University School of Nursing. Researchers investigated the incidence of infection in thousands of hospitalized patients and found the odds for women succumbing to a bloodstream infection (BSI) and surgical-site infection (SSI) were significantly lower than for men. The odds of community-associated ...

Experts: Better Diagnosis Detects More Multiple Sclerosis Cases

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Doctors say that better diagnostic facilities have led to detection of more cases of the multiple sclerosis, that affects two million people globally. This statement was made on World Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Day. "There has been a steady increase in the number of MS cases in the last two-three years. Even children are prone to this disorder and are showing MS symptoms," said Arabinda Mukherjee, professor of neurology, Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, ...

Pulitzer Photo Prize Awarded To AFP Freelancer

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For his artistic photograph of a rebel sniper's nest in Aleppo, Javier Manzano, a freelance photographer working for AFP in Syria, received a prestigious Pulitzer prize in New York. The ceremony at Columbia University was attended by several hundred people celebrating America's highest journalism award, as well as prizes for literature, theater and music. Manzano, 37, said he was "honored" by his feature photography nod for the picture taken in October, ...

Internet Overlayed on Real World By Startup Glasses

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A startup on the edge of its campus is readying glasses that overlay the Internet on the world in 3D, while Google prepares to release eyewear that provides a window to the Web. Atheer Labs on Thursday provided the first public look at prototype eyewear that lets people manipulate virtual objects, maps and more in the air in a style reminiscent of a scene in the film "Minority Report." "The whole idea is that technology is becoming smart enough to wrap ...

Want to Know What It Takes to Live Up to 100 Years? Read On To Find Out

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Wouldn't it be nice to be able to blow out all 110 candles on your 110th birthday cake? If that's possible, then what is the secret to living that long? Dr. Tom Perls, the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center, estimates there are approximately 200-300 of these "supercentenarians" in the world. "People who live to that age are incredibly heterogeneous, as if they have some key genetic features in common that ...

Why People on Dialysis Have Increased Risk of Heart Attack Decoded

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Clinicians were always aware that patients with advanced kidney disease who are undergoing hemodialysis are highly susceptible to heart attacks and other cardiovascular complications. However the reasons for this were not known. New research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology show that uremic toxins, which are not removed by hemodialysis, increase heart attack risk. The same scientists also have found what can reduce this risk: an oral adsorbent ...

Research Has Identified Ways to Make Cancer Cells More Responsive to Chemotherapy

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A new research has shed light on why some cancer cells don't respond to chemotherapy, and identified a mechanism to rectify that. The research is from Western University. Breast cancer characterized as "triple negative" carries a poor prognosis, with limited treatment options. In some cases, chemotherapy doesn't kill the cancer cells the way it's supposed to. Dr. Shawn Li, PhD, and his team at Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, identified ...

Sexual Assault Common in Young People

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Criminologists from Penn State claim that sexual assault has much to do with gender as it has to do with age.Young people -- both male and female -- are the most likely targets of rape and other sexual assaults, said Richard Felson, professor of criminology and sociology. The most frequent victims of those assaults are 15 years old, regardless of gender, or the age of the offender, he said. Older people and women rarely commit the crime, but when they do, their most ...

Interleukin-22 and Post-Influenza Bacterial Superinfection

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Interleukin-22 protects against bacterial superinfections that can arise following influenza, researchers from the Pasteur Institute, Lille, France have shown in a mouse model. Their research is published in the June 2013 issue of the iJournal of Virology/i. Influenza A viral infection can lead to primary pneumonia and, later on, to serious complications including secondary bacterial pneumonia and sepsis. Post-influenza bacterial superinfections ...

Anti-Smoking Clinics in China are Not So Effective

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Smoking cessation clinics seemed to be a promising business, but have not delivered the desired results in China. According to the latest figures, 600,000 people develop lung cancer every year in China, accounting for one-third of the world's total. The smoking cessation clinic at the Chongqing Fifth People's Hospital in Chongqing metropolis received only 10 patients last year, down from 100 in 2008 when the clinic was set up, Xinhua reported. In ...

Healing Process can be Hastened by Bandage Inspired by Human Scab

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Scientists have indicated that an advanced new bandage that mimics human scab formation can hasten wound healing. Shutao Wang and colleagues explain that scabs are a perfect natural dressing material for wounds. In addition to preventing further bleeding, scabs protect against infection and recruit the new cells needed for healing. Existing bandages and other dressings for wounds generally are intended to prevent bleeding and infections. Wang's team set out to ...

Popular Artificial Sweetener can Modify How the Body Handles Sugar

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have suggested that the popular artificial sweetener sucralose can modify how the body handles sugar. In a small study, the researchers analyzed the sweetener in 17 severely obese people who do not have diabetes and don't use artificial sweeteners regularly. "Our results indicate that this artificial sweetener is not inert - it does have an effect," said first author M. Yanina Pepino, ...

New Research into Treatment for Neglected Diseases on the Way

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In a hunt for treatments for diseases that claim thousands of lives every year, a non-profit group is expected to initiate a project to comb the catalogues of some of Japan's biggest drug companies. The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), set up by the Japanese government, Japanese pharma companies and the Bill (and) Melinda Gates Foundation, said they were looking at a potential five-year commitment of more than (Dollar) 100 million to support research and ...

Austerity Bites Cause Europeans To Give Up Holiday Travels

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Fewer Europeans are planning to go away for a summer holiday as economic austerity bites, a new study shows, with levels of foreign vacation travel at their lowest for eight years. No more than 54 percent of Europeans are planning to get away for summer holiday this year, according to the Ipsos-Europ Assistance "holiday barometer" published Thursday. Europ Assistance Group CEO Martin Vial said there was "a clear correlation between the intensity of the ...

Heart Patients in Bengal can Use Novel Financial Scheme

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A unique financial scheme that was launched Bengal on Wednesday will allow heart patients in the state to opt for advanced treatments at an affordable cost. Kolkata's Belle Vue Clinic has partnered with India Medtronic to extend its scheme of equated monthly installment (EMI) under the Healthy Heart For All (HHFA) initiative. "We have started the EMI scheme for cardiac patients as the major problem in India is affordability," said Munish Sehegal, business ...

New Gay Union Laws for Italy

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A day after France celebrated its first gay wedding, a lawmaker from Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party claimed that he was submitting a draft bill to recognise same sex unions. "We are very behind in terms of civil rights in Italy," the deputy, Giancarlo Galan, told AFP, saying it would apply the "same rules" as marriage. Under the proposed law "gay couples will have the same rights and duties as heterosexual ones," he said, particularly on ...

Radiotherapy Remains the Treatment of First Choice for High-Risk Low-Grade Glioma

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Researchers compared initial radiotherapy to temozolomide chemotherapy in a large, international, randomized trial. A statistically significant difference between the two treatment strategies was not observed for progression-free survival, although radiotherapy was numerically favored. However, molecular tumor characterization may allow the treatment approach to be personalized and one or the other treatment modality to be selected. The results of EORTC ...

Robotic Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy Done by Hopkins Surgeons

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Two gynecologic surgeons from Johns Hopkins are among the first in the nation to perfor, a minimally invasive robotic hysterectomy. Amanda Nickles Fader, M.D., associate professor of gynecologic oncology and director of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service and the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics; and Stacey Scheib, M.D., assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics and director of the Multidisciplinary Fibroid ...

HIV Patients Lost To Follow-Up Now Successfully Located

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Public health officials in New York City have recently launched a program to locate HIV-positive patients who may have been lost to follow-up, and help them reconnect and treat them. Efforts to restart antiretroviral therapy are especially important with the current emphasis on "treatment-as-prevention" for HIV, according to the study by Chi-Chi N. Udeagu, MPH, and colleagues of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The article is available on ...

Stay in Shape With a Bit of Exercise

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New research suggests that even four minutes of vigorous activity three times a week may help keep you fit and healthy, shooing away the belief that staying in shape requires hours of training. Regular training improves maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), which is a well-established measure of physical fitness. However, just how much exercise, and how intense that exercise should be to deliver the biggest benefit remains unclear. Now, researchers from the ...

New Hormone may Help Restore Fertility in Women

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New treatments to restore fertility in women is on the way, thanks to a newly discovered hormone, produced by the human eggs. "The finding of a new ovarian hormone produced by the oocytes capable of stimulating ovarian follicle growth could lead to new infertility treatments," said Aaron J. W. Hsueh, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Division of Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology in the Department of Obstetrics and Genecology at Stanford University ...

Encephalitis Claims the Lives of Two More

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Two more children succumbed to encephalitis on Thursay, making the death toll to a total of eight in just a month in Bihar, health official said. Encephalitis causes high fever, irritation and swelling of the brain. An official said: "Two more children have died in Champaran district." The first encephalitis-related death in the state this year was reported in the last week of April in Muzaffarpur, about 70 km from here Last year, the disease ...

Mastectomy Popular in Young Breast Cancer Patients

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A new research on young women revealed that most of them suffering from breast cancer prefer to undergo a mastectomy rather than a surgical procedure that would conserve the breast. Shoshana Rosenberg, ScD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health, and her colleagues evaluated 277 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger, who reported having a choice between a mastectomy and a breast conserving lumpectomy, and whose ...