Health News Articles - Medicine News

When Charlton Heston passed away last weekend, somehow not from an accidental gunshot wound, he had been battling Alzheimer’s for six years.

US-based biotech company Power3 Medical Products claims to have developed a test that can detect Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s six years before the diseases reveal themselves. Had Heston been offered the luxury of such far-sighted diagnosis between the time of his christiological walking tour and ascension to NRA straight-shooter, his most infamous utterance would possibly still be an eventuality.

The NuroPro test, despite being in the early stages of development, will be marketed to physicians in the United States and Greece later this year. Its creators claim 90% accuracy, though researchers are still examining 300 trial patients to determine if this is true.

Continue reading 'New blood test can predict future' >

Of all the hair-brained policies we’ve had to endure as a nation over the past eight years, abstinence-only sex education has to be right near the top of the list. The idea that explaining the complexities of sexual reproduction and disease prevention will prove a greater aphrodisiac than exploding teenage hormones is logic at its most crocked. As a federally mandated ideological agenda item it’s shortsighted and asinine, and, as more than a few folks prognosticated, potentially harmful.

But really, how harmful did even the most cynical of us think it could be? Worst case is some kid misses the memo on condoms, goes happily philandering about, ends up like poor Telly from Kids and spends the rest of his life pissed at the world because no one bothered to give him a heads up. Don’t get me wrong, that’s bad, awful, tragic, but it betrays little more than a natural adolescent naivete about acts belonging to the province of adulthood. The real folly is that the no-sex-till-wedding-night set assumes that students somehow will glean the basics of the aforementioned complexities without the benefit of formal education.

Continue reading 'This just in: cure for AIDS found in Florida' >

Despite the threat of a future in which we have few defenses against deadly bacterial infections, Americans don't seem to be too freaked out. We're still awfully good at over-using antibiotics (by, for instance, using them to treat the wrong types of infections) and not completing antibiotic treatment, both of which increase the risk of bacterial resistance, according to an abstract presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.

Continue reading 'Americans not particularly worried about antibiotic resistance' >

In the past six months we’ve heard a couple grand and divergent pronouncements regarding two of the world’s deadliest diseases. David Baltimore recently waxed hopeless on the prospect of finding an HIV vaccine, in what amounts to a sober echo of Chris Rock’s resigned vision of the future:

"Yo, man, you weren't at work yesterday. What's up?''
''My AlDS is acting up."
''You know, when the weather get like this, my AlDS just pop up."
''But l took some Robitussin. l'm fine now!''

Conversely, opponents of malaria aren’t blinking as of yet. Indeed, they’re digging in for a fight. In October, in front of 300 of the globe’s leading malaria experts, Melinda Gates delivered a message of almost scandalous optimism: “The only way to end death malaria is to end malaria,” she boomed. The London Observer chronicles the response:

What she meant, and it provoked gasps from her audience, was 'end' as in 'eradicate' - known as the 'e' word in the malaria community because of its almost taboo status, so improbably, unscientifically dreamy does the task appear.

Continue reading 'Malaria researchers: dream on' >

A new meta-analysis of research on modern antidepressants-- some of it unpublished by the drug companies-- suggests that the drugs have little advantage over placebos.

Why then do so many people consider drugs like Prozac to be miracle drugs for depression-- many putting up with serious sexual side effects in order to take them? Are they simply being duped by a placebo effect or avoiding withdrawal symptoms? And how could drugs which are little different from placebo also produce suicidal or even homicidal thoughts in some patients?

Continue reading 'What the media misses about antidepressants' >

When it comes to the threat of antibiotic resistance, the World Health Organization doesn't mince words: some diseases, it says, "will have no effective therapies within the next ten years." Indeed, more than 70 percent of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics commonly used to treat them, and it's only going to get worse. But a chemical found on amphibian skin—produced in response to stress, injury, or contact with microorganisms—has just been found to kill some drug-resistant bacteria.

Continue reading 'Could frogs save us from MRSA?' >

From our friends at

Breathalyzers are no longer just good for getting a DUI citation. Now when a police officer suspends your driver’s license he can throw in, “By the way, not only is your blood alcohol level over the legal limit, but according to my breathalyzer—you have an inoperable malignant brain tumor.” Indeed, scientists have found that by simply blasting a person's breath with laser light, you can detect specific molecules that will tell you whether or not they have specific diseases like diabetes or cancer.

Actually, this StarTrekish advancement is not intended to diagnose drunkenness (although it can do that too), but rather is meant to make professional medical diagnostics quicker, less expensive, less painful and potentially even more accurate that current methods. Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder say the advancement would allow doctors to simultaneously screen for a variety of conditions with a mere exhale. Known as optical frequency comb spectroscopy, the technology earned it’s creators a Nobel Prize in physics, and is powerful enough to sort through all the molecules in human breath while also being sensitive enough to distinguish rare molecules that can serve as biomarkers for specific diseases.

Continue reading 'Futuristic "Breathalyzer" Laser Created that Can Assess Personal Health with a Mere Exhale' >

My best friend may have the "most dorktacular tattoos" award sewn up (Green Lantern + The Auryn, ladiez!), but Carl Zimmer has a Flickr gallery of sciency types gunning for the crown.

I hope some of them at least had some utility inked in while they were at it.

Botox, the beautifying neurotoxin®, has been linked to -- of all things -- "dangerous botulism symptoms in some users," says the AP. Waitaminnit - yer saying that the most toxic protein on earth, and one of the most kill-you-est substances on earth period, might be dangerous if you jab it into your face? Get me the President. NOW!

Continue reading 'My god, Botox users are dying from botulism! In other news: 2+2=4' >

If you've ever gotten a horrible tattoo in the past (I'm looking at you as I type, misbegotten Tasmanian Devil), you may soon have the best excuse for it ever: "I didn't know what to get, and it was time for my flu shot."

Soon tribal bands, tramp stamps and ubiquitous flaming skulls could serve as delivery mechanisms for vaccines, as researchers in Germany discovered that tattooing mice with vaccines produced 16 times more antibodies than conventional muscle injections. The scientists think that since a a vibrating tattoo needle produces greater tissue damage than a single needle, it provokes a stronger and faster immune response.

In the near future, tattoos could provide an excellent delivery method for therapeutic vaccines designed to prevent against all types of diseases, including specific types of cancer. Also, you can get that totally rad Ratt tattoo you've always been too shy to splurge on.

Continue reading 'Get some ink done, boost your immune system' >

Yes, Dr Robert Jarvik invented an artificial heart. But should he be the face of Pfizer's cholesterol drug Lipitor? Congress isn't so sure.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has asked Mr Jarvik to answer questions regarding his job as poster boy for the pill.

In the hot seat, Jarvik will probably be questioned about his medical credentials--he is not licensed to practice medicine nor is he a cardiologist--as well as his athleticism. In the ads, Jarvik appears to rowing a shell when in fact body doubles from Lake Washington Rowing Club were hired to do the work.

“He’s about as much an outdoorsman as Woody Allen,” said a longtime collaborator, Dr. O. H. Frazier of the Texas Heart Institute. “He can’t row.”

Continue reading 'Congress questions Lipitor's spokesman and his sportsmanship' >

Autoimmune diseases have become the third biggest category of disease in the U.S. after cancer and heart disease, and some say that the prevalence is still rising. Now the CDC tells us we've got another gem to add to the mix: "progressive inflammatory neuropathy." It's a fancy if vague name for a collection of symptoms ranging from mild weakness to total short-term paralysis, and it's thought to be caused by the inhalation of pig brain. Yep, you read that right.

Continue reading 'New CDC memo: don't go around snorting pig brains' >

"Not to tonight, honey — I have a headache." Is there a more dreaded phrase in common parlance? I think not. But the wifey is either going to have to get more creative or buy a chastity belt, because recent research points to the idea that sex might actually cure migraine headaches, especially in women.

Oklahoma Health Sciences Center neurology professor James Couch first thought sex might cure headaches back in 1988, based on the context clues of a perhaps particularly randy patient.

"This lady said 'I really don't need a pill, I need a guy's phone number," [he said]. [...] The patient told Couch she had trouble curing her headaches since her husband had divorced her and she'd signed up for a pain treatment study.

Couch thought this was interesting, in a scientific way, of course. "A physiologic process — the climax — is turning off another physiologic process," said Couch.

The inquisitive Couch soldiered on, asking 84 female migraine patients what happened when they had sex during migraines. 61 percent reported some relief, which means for them, sex was comparable to modern migraine medications called triptans, which are thought to ease 60 to 80 percent of migraines. Even more impressively, 20 percent of women reported that sex cured their migraines completely, while triptans may cure migraines 30 percent of the time.

"Four women said it literally stopped the headache, period," said Couch. "No matter when the headache occurred, it stopped the headache cold."

Score one for...scoring! But there is some bad news, especially for men.

Continue reading 'Sex can sometimes cure headaches; world's housewives still 'not in the mood'' >

Twins can team up for all kinds of things: When I was in elementary, the too-cool-for-school twins Aaron and Brian kicked ass at every sport, said the funniest tag-team lines and got all the attention from the girls in Mrs. Durham's class. But you know what they didn't do? Cure cancer.

A UK woman pregnant with twins was subsequently diagnosed with cervical cancer; when she reported to the hospital with a suspected miscarriage, doctors found her unborn twin girls had kicked loose the tumor and saved her life.

"I couldn't believe it when the doctors told me that the babies had dislodged the tumour," she said. "I'd felt them kicking but I didn't realise just how important their kicking would turn out to be."

Continue reading 'Unborn Wonder twins 'kick out' mother's cancer, kick their way into our hearts' >

The news on painkillers like morphine and Oxycontin just keeps getting more exciting. A new study highlighted here suggests that when pain is caused by inflammation, tolerance to opioids is less likely to develop. In a model of inflammatory pain in rats, researchers found that the same dose of morphine continued to provide consistent relief.

The rats had pain from chronic inflammation in their paws. However, when opioid receptors in the paws were blocked, tolerance did later develop, showing that inflammation itself somehow prevents the development of tolerance, at least in the peripheral nerves.

This means that patients with conditions like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer don't have to worry so much that opioid drugs will "stop working" and that they will constantly have to chase tolerance. As long as the underlying pain itself doesn't get worse, the drugs should continue to work.

Continue reading 'Opioids: No Tolerance for Inflammation!' >