Magnesium to Delay Premature Labor Reduces Baby’s Risk of Cerebral Palsy

When a woman experiences premature labor during pregnancy, she may be given an intravenous treatment of magnesium sulfate as a means of delaying labor and preventing premature delivery.  A new study reveals the treatment may come with an added bonus - using magnesium to delay premature labor reduces the baby’s risk of developing cerebral palsy. Read more

45.7 Million Americans Still Without Health Insurance

On August 26, the US Census Bureau released the news that although the number of Americans living without healthcare insurance, and the level of medical care that insurance promises, has dropped by 1.3 million since 2006, there were, nevertheless, 45.7 million Americans still without health insurance coverage in 2007. Read more

Hope for Mesothelioma Patients May Lie in Recent Genetic Study

A recently published article about the genetic affect of asbestos exposure has offered insight into the development of asbestos-related diseases. The scientific study, published in the September issue of BMC Genomics, may be significant in helping to diagnose and treat asbestos-related diseases. Read more

Fat Cells of Obesity Sicker Than Lean Person’s Fat Cells

Using the same simple description of sickness as it applies to the body as a whole - that when it doesn’t work correctly, it’s sick - researchers at Temple University School of Medicine conclude the fat cells of patients suffering from obesity are, by that definition, sicker than a lean person’s fat cells.  They just don’t quite work right.  Read more

C-Sections May Increase the Risk of Diabetes

An exhaustive study that spanned the globe reveals an increased risk, by 20%, a child born by Cesarean section (C-section) will develop type 1 diabetes before turning 15.  Headquartered at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, the research team reports 2.3 million United Kingdom (UK) citizens are diabetic, 250,000 of whom have type 1, or the most common form of childhood, diabetes.  In Northern Ireland, there are 6,000 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes among 62,000 total diabetics nationwide. Read more

Many Ayurvedic Medicines Laced With Toxic Metals

Researchers in Boston have just released the findings of a recent study that evaluated the levels of certain toxic metals in a randomly selected list of Ayurvedic medicines sold over the internet. The analysis reveals Ayurvedic medicines laced with toxic metals, including arsenic, lead, and mercury, include about 20% of all such products on the internet market and many of them contain higher levels of these metals than federal standards for toxicity allow. Read more

Bird Flu Vaccine Ready to License

The biotechnology research firm, Novavax, announced impressive results in a human trial of the vaccine it is developing for the H5N1, or Indonesian, strain of bird flu discovered in 2005.  This particular strain of bird flu has made 385 people sick and killed 243 of them since 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Read more

Java’s Jolt of Caffeine Universally Felt

Those of us who can’t open our eyes in the morning before downing a nice, steaming cup of coffee eagerly anticipate that java jolt that gets our hearts pumping, our blood flowing, and clears the cobwebs out of our sleepy thoughts, even though some coffee critics think the beverage’s energizing boost is all in our heads.  In an effort to prove the energizing boost that comes from caffeine is real, not imagined, Canadian researchers tested the after-effects of a cup of coffee on regular coffee drinkers and on others who almost never touch the stuff.  Turns out the jolt of energy that comes from caffeine is universally felt, regardless of the extent of one’s coffee habit. Read more

Michigan Hospital Uses Robotic Surgery for Kidney Removal

Surgeons at the Henry Ford Hospital have just announced their use of a three-dimensional robotic surgical technique they used to successfully remove a cancerous tumor from a 50 years old patient.  The technique, SIRS nephrectomy, allows the removal of all or part of a damaged kidney with much less trauma than conventional surgical techniques do. Read more

Broccoli-Rich Diet May Reverse Diabetics’ Blood Vessel Damage

People with diabetes are at increased risk of hyperglycemia, a condition marked by high levels of glucose in the bloodstream.  Hyperglycemia can damage the walls of blood vessels to the heart, increasing a diabetic’s risk of having a stroke or developing heart and kidney disease.  Certain molecules, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), are produced in excess, as much as three times the desired amount, when hyperglycemia is present and its these ROS molecules that damage the cells of the blood vessels. Read more

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