RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

Treating certain prostate cancer patients with radiation immediately after surgery helps them live longer without a relapse, a new report says.
In a study of nearly 500 men who had surgery for prostate cancer, doctors compared men who also had radiation with those who had surgery only. Over 10 years, radiation reduced the risk that the disease would return by 25%, according to findings presented Monday in Denver at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.
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by DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Bayer Healthcare announced today that it would allow its most promising new antibiotic, moxifloxacin, to be tested against tuberculosis, a disease that kills 5,000 people a day and is the immediate cause of death for a third of the world’s AIDS victims.

If the antibiotic substantially shortens TB treatment, which now typically lasts six months, the company will make millions of doses and sell them at low prices to poor countries.
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BY DELTHIA RICKS
STAFF WRITER

Obtaining lines of coveted embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo has been a “holy grail” of scientists, and now separate teams say they have found ways of addressing such a goal.

While the work of both teams is preliminary, and tests have focused on mice, each group has proved — at least in principle — that stem cells can be produced effectively without destroying an embryo.
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A healthy dose of “imagination” helps older people remember to take medications and follow other medical advice, according to a new study supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part of the National Institutes of Health.
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– Robert Preidt

TUESDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) — The eyes may be more than the windows to the soul; they may also help doctors predict stroke risk, according to a new Australian study.

The seven-year study of nearly 3,700 people aged 49 and older found that people with changes in the small blood vessels in their eyes were 70 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than people without the damage, which includes tiny bulges (microaneurysms) in the blood vessels or tiny blood spots caused by blood leaking from microaneurysms. Read the rest of this entry »

11/10/2005- Eating fish at least once a week may slow down the development of dementia, suggests new research out of the US.

The trial on elderly men and women living in Chicago found that those who reported eating fish at least once a week had a slower decline in mental function than peers who did not eat fish as often – about 10 per cent less per year.
For those eating two or more fish meals a week the rate of cognitive decline was 13 per cent slower than non-fish eaters, revealed the study published online yesterday, ahead of the December print issue of the Archives of Neurology (vol 62, 1-5). Read the rest of this entry »

The cancer drug Herceptin will be fast-tracked for women in Scotland, the Scottish Executive has confirmed.
On Wednesday it was announced all women with early-stage breast cancer in England would be tested to see if they were eligible for the drug.
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Roberta Friedman, Ph.D., ALSA Research Department Information Coordinator

While this summary is not exhaustive, it does include some of the most recent advances. If you would like certain news items featured, please contact the Research Department at researchgrants@alsa-national.org.
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BODY PARTS
By Justine Ferrari
01oct05

THERE are few signals of the creeping advance of Alzheimer’s disease. Before you know it, the occasional lapses of memory have overtaken family members and your parent is wandering the streets and presenting Read the rest of this entry »

Asian News International

Washington, September 27, 2005

A new study by University of Wisconsin Medical School researchers states that pomegranate juice may fight against prostate cancer, which is the most common invasive cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

By Miranda Hitti

The health perks of eating your vegetables may include a lower risk of lung cancer, new research shows.

The finding, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, isn’t written in stone. More work is needed to check the results, write Matthew Schabath, PhD, and colleagues. Read the rest of this entry »

By LINDSEY TANNER
The Associated Press
Monday, September 26, 2005; 10:48 PM

CHICAGO — Unexplained weight loss in older people might be an early signal of Alzheimer’s disease, appearing several years before the memory lapses that define the illness, according to an intriguing but unproven new theory. Read the rest of this entry »

Reuters
Sep. 23, 2005 - By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with challenging jobs may have to work hard, but the payoff could be some protection against Alzheimer’s disease later in life, new research suggests.

In a study of more than 10,000 older Swedish adults who were part of a twin registry, researchers found that people with a history of “complex” work had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The same held true even among twin pairs in which one was affected by Alzheimer’s but the other was not — a situation that factors in the influence of genes and upbringing. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists in Britain have transferred most of an entire human chromosome into mice in an attempt to understand more about Down’s syndrome.

People with Down’s syndrome have three copies of a particular chromosome, instead of the usual two.

They have learning disabilities, and are more likely to suffer heart problems and other medical conditions.

The researchers say they now hope to identify which genes on the chromosome cause the symptoms, so they can create better treatments. Read the rest of this entry »

22:54pm 22nd September 2005

Scientists have announced the most successful recreation of Down’s syndrome in mice so far, bringing the prospect of a better understanding of the condition a step closer.

A study led the Medical Research Council in the UK created a mouse model of Down’s syndrome by adding an almost complete copy of human chromosome 21 to mouse embryonic cells.

A person with Down’s syndrome has three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the normal two. Read the rest of this entry »