Health News - Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Olive oil may be good for your stomach as well as your heart. A new Spanish study suggests virgin olive oil may help prevent and treat H. pylori infections, which are responsible for millions of cases of gastritis and peptic ulcers each year.
Preliminary laboratory tests show the antioxidant compounds found in virgin olive oil are effective against several strains of H. pylori bacteria, which infects the lining of the stomach. Researchers say these results must now be replicated in humans. But if future studies confirm the findings, incorporating virgin olive oil into your diet may help treat or prevent painful stomach ulcers. Continue reading
Children may eat nearly a third more when they snack in large groups rather than with just a few friends. A new study shows children between the ages of 2 and 6 ate 30% more during an extended snacking session in a group of nine, compared with when they snacked in a smaller group of three children.
The study was done by researchers who included Julie C. Lumeng, MD, from the Center for Human Growth and Development, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Researchers say the sight and sounds of others doing the same thing may encourage kids to eat more. It's a phenomenon previously identified among adults and animals called “social facilitation.” Continue reading
The heart of a New York teen made what his doctors are calling a miraculous comeback four days after it stopped beating at a gym. Daniel Walker, 17, has suffered from a rare congenital heart disease that has left his coronary artery pinched, giving him only 10 percent of normal heart capacity.
Walker was jogging at his high school gym when his flawed heart gave out on him. After days battling between life and death, doctors decided on a transplant. Attached to a bypass machine to keep his blood pumping through the body, Walker was waiting for a heart transplant when his rhythmless heart started beating again. "It's a miracle," Dr. Abeel Mangi, one of Walker's cardiac surgeons at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia, according to U.S. media, "There's really no other way to put it." Continue reading
As part of February's National Children's Dental Health Month, the American Dental Association reminds parents that children should visit the dentist within 6 months of getting their first tooth and no later than their first birthday.
"We like to see the child by their first birthday so we can talk to parents about good oral hygiene practices and we also do see a certain number of children who have early decay in the mouth," Dr. Kimberly Harms, ADA consumer advisor and general dentist at Rivers Edge Dental Clinic in Farmington, Minnesota, told Reuters Health. New moms should know that babies' gums should be wiped with a damp cloth after every feeding; once a tooth erupts, it needs to be cleaned all the way around. "We have bacteria that build up in the mouth every 24 hours and we need to get rid of it," she said. Continue reading
A new FDA-approved device that uses light stimulation enlarges the visual field of patients who are left with vision impairments after stroke, researchers announced here at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2007.
Dr. Jose G. Romano of the University of Florida at Miami presented findings of a review of 161 stroke patients treated at 16 U.S. clinics. The average patient age was 58.7 years old and the patients were seen about 3 years after a stroke or other brain injury causing impaired vision. Patients underwent Vision Restoration Therapy (Nova Vision, Inc.), which is a custom-designed pattern of bright and dim light stimulation, delivered to the edges of the visual field of the affected eye. Patients use Vision Restoration Therapy twice a day, six days a week, in 30-minute sessions, fixating on a screen that delivered light stimulation. The complete Vision Restoration Therapy program consists of six four-week modules. Continue reading
A single-dose of the antibiotic azithromycin, sold in the U.S. under the trade name Zithromax, is recommended as the first therapy to use against traveler's diarrhea, particularly if it's acquired in Thailand, researchers report in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. According to surveys of U.S. military personnel stationed in Thailand, bacteria belonging to the Campylobacter family are responsible for up to 60 percent of cases of diarrhea, Dr. David R. Tribble of the Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland and colleagues note.
More than 85 percent of these pathogens are resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as Levaquin (levofloxacin) or Cipro (ciprofloxacin), which are frequently prescribed for traveler's diarrhea.To evaluate alternative treatments, the researchers studied 156 patients with diarrhea being treated at military field clinics in Thailand. The patients were randomly assigned to azithromycin given in a single dose or over 3 days, or to levofloxacin given for 3 days. Continue reading