RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

A NASAL spray that claims to stop the common cold in its tracks has been developed.

If it works, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has cracked a problem that has defeated the Medical Research Council’s Common Cold Research Unit for almost half a century and defied the best that science and folk medicine could throw at it. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers Say Better Indicator for Prostate Cancer Could Cut Down on Unnecessary Biopsies

Sept. 21, 2005 — While prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, the standard detection test is often inaccurate, leading millions of men to get unnecessary biopsies. Researchers have devised a potentially better way to catch the cancer early. Read the rest of this entry »

Contributed by Nicole Weaver| 21 September, 2005 16:02 GMT

Researchers were able to reverse memory loss in mice by reducing the amount of an enzyme crucial to Alzheimer’s development in a study published in Nature Neuroscience. An ingredient in green tea may protect against Alzheimer’s disease, suggests research published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
An antioxidant found in the popular drink prevented Alzheimer’s-like damage in the brains of mice that had been genetically programmed to develop the disease process, researchers at the University of South Florida report. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists have demonstrated that an anti-cancer compound can offer hope of new brain cancer treatments.
August 23, 2005

A new study by researchers at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, suggests that a drug which can fight cancers deep inside the brain could be on the way.

Scientists have found that a compound that works to counteract a hormone associated with tumor growth can pass through a membrane called the blood-brain barrier. Read the rest of this entry »

Human stem cells transplanted into injured mice help them walk again, suggesting human treatments are nearer.
September 20, 2005

California researchers have successfully transplanted human neural stem cells into mice with spinal cord injuries and demonstrated improvements in the animals’ ability to walk, suggesting future human treatments are a little bit closer, a leading scientific journal reported Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

– Robert Preidt

MONDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) — A genetic pathway linked to breast cancer recurrence may prove to a new target for treatment, U.S. researchers report.

This pathway was identified in research with mice and substantiated in laboratory tests of human breast cancer samples. The findings appear in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell. Read the rest of this entry »

By Val Brickates Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:37 PM ET Sept. 16, 2005

BOSTON (MarketWatch) - The Food and Drug Administration has approved Johnson & Johnson’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade for the treatment of ulcerative colitis, a debilitating digestive disease.
According to the company Friday, the FDA has approved the drug to treat moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis in patients who have not responded well to other standard treatments.

J&J (JNJ: news, chart, profile) said Remicade can greatly reduce symptoms of the disease, with some patients even going into remission. The drug also allows patients to stop using corticosteroid drugs, a standard therapy for the disease which can cause serious side effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:40 PM ET
By Susan Heavey

BETHESDA, Md., Sept 14 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s experimental leukemia and lymphoma drug Arranon should be granted accelerated U.S. approval for children and adults, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »

By Peggy Peck , MedPage Today Staff Writer
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Source News Article: MSNBC
MedPage Today Action Points

Tell women that digital mammography is a relatively new technology that is not available in all centers.
Advise women that some insurers may not pay for use of digital mammography.
Explain that the study found that both plain film and digital mammography were effective screening tools. Read the rest of this entry »

Medical Study News
Published: Wednesday, 7-Sep-2005

Currently it is fairly common practice to give heart attack patients a clot-busting drug a few hours before planned angioplasty.
But now a major study has found that the practice could be dangerous.

Doctors often give the clot-dissolver in the hope that it will make the artery-widening operation more successful. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Pollack The New York Times

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

NEW YORK The first inhaled form of insulin, a product that could reduce or eliminate the daily injections needed by millions of diabetics, has moved closer to approval in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

University of Liverpool researchers reportedly are striving to make human tissue grown from stem cells available for transplant within four years.

The $31 million project funded by the European Commission is designed eventually to cure such illnesses as heart failure, diabetes, chronic ulcers and degenerative diseases, The London Mirror reported Tuesday. Scientists believe stem cells can generate healthy tissue to replace that damaged by disease or injury. Read the rest of this entry »

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) — An increasingly popular group of breast cancer drugs apparently has a downside that few are familiar with.

A review article in the September issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism attempts to heighten awareness about the effect of aromatase inhibitors on joint pain. Read the rest of this entry »

By EMMA ROSS
Monday, September 5, 2005 Updated at 1:03 PM EDT
Associated Press

Stockholm — In the largest study ever conducted on people in the throes of a heart attack, scientists have found that giving a newer blood thinner instead of the traditional one could halve the risk of life-threatening bleeding. Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday, September 01, 2005
By Jennifer Warner

A new drug may stop the spread of lung cancer by blocking an enzyme that prevents cancer cells from dying.

Early tests of the drug in mice show that the active ingredient, a compound called GRN163L, works quickly and may eventually be useful after surgery or chemotherapy/radiation therapy to prevent any missed cancer cells from spreading. Read the rest of this entry »