Good News About Health: April 2009 Archive
New study on autism seen as 'hopeful'
(Eithne Donnellan, Irish Times) Three major studies have for the first time pinpointed the genetic mechanisms underlying some autistic disorders, which may enhance understanding of what causes them and eventually help point the way towards a cure.
Economy may stink, but it's up to you to keep on smiling
(Julian Kesner, New York Daily News) You know what's free? A smile. And while you'd punch out someone on the subway for saying that to you, these days, it's not bad advice. Sure, we can't control the financial chaos around us, but we can control how we deal with it. We can get happy. And when we get happy, we get healthy.
What Are Friends For? A Longer Life
(Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times) In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self-help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.
Psychologist's advice easy to swallow at pizza shop
(Columbus Dispatch) Julie Helmrich had answered questions about sleep problems, chronic lateness and an obsession with masturbation when she paused to read aloud the next query from a customer at Cranky Al's Bakery and Pizza. "What is up with female hormonal swings?" someone, presumably a man, had written on a card. Hormones can be like gasoline on a fire, Helmrich, a clinical psychologist of 29 years, calmly explained. "I know you think they're bad on the outside," she said into her wireless microphone. "You should feel what it's like on the inside." So it goes at "Shrink 'n' Drink," a question-and-answer session convened by Helmrich one evening each month at Cranky Al's.
Mass. town takes steps to trim fat (really), health care costs
(Mimi Hall, USA Today) Kelle Shugrue's 7-year-old son eats fresh fruit and vegetables at his public school, rides his bike along neighborhood paths and walked to school last week as part of a community effort to get kids moving. The Shugrue family lives in Somerville, Mass., a Boston suburb hailed by health advocates for its seven-year investment in programs fighting childhood obesity and encouraging healthful living.
Kids' hearing gives clues on learning
(Jacqueline Smith, New Zealand Herald) The answer to why girls and boys reach different levels of achievement in the classroom is all in the ears, researchers have found. American educator and psychologist Doctor JoAnn Deak, who spoke at the annual Auckland Primary Principal's Association conference this week, says she has found the hairs in girls' ears are more sensitive than those in boys'.
Honey gives up healthy secret
(New Zealand Herald) Waikato University researchers have discovered a compound in the nectar of manuka trees which converts to the antibacterial ingredient that active manuka honey is known for.
$10M prize offered to transform health care
(Reuters) Organizers of the X Prize, who have set up contests for space travel, DNA research and super-efficient cars, said on Tuesday they are offering $10 million to the winner of a contest to transform the health of people in a small U.S. community. They invited written ideas for the Healthcare X Prize, and said they would choose five for a three-year trial run in real communities or at employers.
Homeopathy 'eases cancer therapy'
(BBC News) Some homeopathic medicines may ease the side-effects of cancer treatments without interfering in how they work, a scientific review has concluded. The Cochrane Collaboration said, while there were few studies, it did appear that some effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy could be alleviated.
Experts identify compound that may fight bird flu
(Tan Ee Lyn, Reuters) Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have identified a synthetic compound which appears to be able to stop the replication of influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus.
Just Say No to Aging?
(Wray Herbert, Newsweek) Imagine that you could rewind the clock 20 years. It's 1989. Madonna is topping the pop charts, and TV sets are tuned to "Cheers" and "Murphy Brown." Widespread Internet use is just a pipe dream, and Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Montana are on recent covers of Sports Illustrated. But most important, you're 20 years younger. How do you feel? Well, if you're at all like the subjects in a provocative experiment by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, you actually feel as if your body clock has been turned back two decades.
Diabetics in stem-cell trial go for years without insulin jab
(David Rose, Times Online) Patients with type 1 diabetes who received an experimental stem-cell treatment using stem cells made from their own bone marrow have been able to go as long as four years without needing insulin, researchers say. Stem-cell transplants have effectively “reversed” the condition and freed a small group of patients from the need to have daily injections to control their condition.
Manuka honey pilgrim meets his benefactors
(New Zealand Herald) As the cruise liner Millennium pulled into port at Tauranga, the sense of anticipation built in passenger Tom Lloyd - not because he was excited to see the sights of the Bay, but because the American was finally going to meet the people who changed his life.
A City of Strangers and Kindness
(Darcy Heller Sternberg, New York Times) I can spot Marty in a crowd a block away. He tilts left into the wind, as if he were shouldering the full blast of Hurricane Katrina, his arm gesticulating awkwardly. Once a well-dressed woman asked if I had seen "that man — I think he’s drunk." I assured her the man was my husband. "He has Parkinson’s," I told her.
Molecule Prompts Damaged Heart Cells To Repair Themselves After A Heart Attack
(Science Daily) A protein that the heart produces during its early development reactivates the embryonic coronary developmental program and initiates migration of heart cells and blood vessel growth after a heart attack, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Healing A (Literally) Broken Heart
(Jeff Glor, CBS News) Salina Gonzales' heart was broken - literally - and then healed. It's all thanks to a highly unusual medical procedure that holds promise for the thousands of people every year who need a heart transplant and can't get one.
Mother's Milk A Lifesaver For Preemies?
(CBS News) Kathie Robinson is thrilled that her daughter Naomi, born 2-1/2 months early, is well enough to be home. But her family isn't complete - yet. "Here we are, we're still going through the journey," Kathie told CBS News contributing medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Eye 'compensates for blind spot'
(BBC) Partially sighted and registered blind people can be taught to read and see faces again using the undamaged parts of their eyes, say experts. When only the central vision is lost, as with the leading cause of blindness, age-related macular degeneration, peripheral vision remains intact. And patients can be taught to exploit this, the Macular Disease Society says.
New scar treatment Avotermin may change the face of surgery
(Sam Lister, Health Editor, Times Online) People left with unsightly scars from injuries or surgery may soon be able to tone down their blemishes with a new drug, research suggests. Tests indicate that the healing drug has the potential to reduce scarring when administered before a surgical operation or on existing scars if the suture is redone.
Experimental Prostate-Cancer Drug Shows Promise
(Brian Walsh, Time) An experimental drug for advanced prostate cancer has shown preliminary success in the first and second phases of clinical trials, shrinking tumors in the lab and reducing signs of the disease in patients with drug-resistant cancer, according to a report published in the April 10 issue of the journal Science.
New malaria drug fights resistance
(Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters) U.S. researchers said on Wednesday they had designed a new kind of malaria drug that kills the parasite that causes the disease and keeps it from becoming resistant to the drug. Tests in mice show the compound also helps other malaria drugs work better, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.
The bionic body 2.0
(CNN) If Rob Spence achieves his goal, technology will change his view of the world -- literally. Spence, who lost an eye in a childhood accident, is in the process of installing a tiny camera into his prosthetic eye. He announced his plan last year, and now he's a step closer to fulfilling his aim.
Solving the Asthma Mystery
(Discovery) Anyone who has reached for an inhaler mid-wheeze would love to know exactly what caused the attack. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison do, too, and plan to get answers soon.
Bone-repairing stem cell jab hope
(Michelle Roberts, BBC News) Doctors may soon be able to patch up damaged bones and joints anywhere in the body with a simple shot in the arm. A team at Keele University is testing injectible stem cells that they say they can control with a magnet.
Willpower: A Game Of Strategy
(Alix Spiegel, NPR) Mike Harmon cannot tell you how he lost his willpower, but he is certain that it is gone. On a recent Thursday night, sitting in a grungy recliner at the Stop Smoking Hypnosis Clinic of Baltimore County, the middle-aged man shrugs his shoulders. "I don't have it anymore," he says. "It's gone."
Heart Muscle Renewed Over Lifetime, Study Finds
(Nicholas Wade, New York Times) In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart: the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime.