Health News - Thursday, January 25, 2007
Drinking moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy does not lead to premature births or underweight babies, Danish scientists said on Friday. Up to three cups of coffee a day does not seem to have any negative impact on the baby or the pregnancy.
Earlier studies that looked at the impact of moderate caffeine consumption during pregnancy have produced mixed results. Some showed no difference while others suggested too much caffeine could lower average birth weight by 100-200 grams (3.5-7 ounces). Continue reading
A clot-busting drug routinely given to heart attack patients is safe and effective for treating stroke and can reduce disability if it is given to patients quickly, scientists said on Friday. The drug, alteplase, is produced by the California-based biotechnology company Genentech under the brand name Activase.
Scientists who tested it in stroke patients said it was most effective if patients were treated within three hours of suffering the stroke. "If you give this treatment very quickly ... you can dissolve the blood clot and the blood circulation is restored to the area before the brain is injured," said Professor Nils Wahlgren, of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Continue reading
A new study shows that people who are obese can reverse some early heart and blood vessel dysfunction by adopting a healthy lifestyle and losing weight. But exercise alone, without weight loss, does not appear to be enough to improve cardiovascular function.
Dr. Chiew Y. Wong of the University of Queensland in Australia and colleagues had 106 obese men and women with no cardiovascular disease complete an eight-week lifestyle intervention program. Sixty-two cut their calorie and fat intake and exercised, while 44 exercised but did not change their diet. Forty-eight of the study participants lost an average of 4.5 percent of their body weight, while the remaining 58 kept their weight stable or gained weight. Continue reading
Men who have survived breast cancer have a higher risk of a second cancer than most other men, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. They said men who have had breast cancer need to be closely watched for new cancers, particularly of the breast, stomach and skin.
Breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2,030 men in the United States alone this year and kill 450 of them, according to the American Cancer Society. Sacha Satram-Hoang and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine looked at California cancer statistics from 1988 to 2003. Of the 1,926 diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time, 221 or 11.5 percent were diagnosed with a second new cancer -- not a spread of the original tumor -- after their breast cancer diagnosis. Continue reading
Beware the Affluenza Virus. An epidemic of mindless consumerism is sweeping the world with the compulsive pursuit of money and possessions making people richer but sadder. That is the stark warning issued by best-selling British psychologist Oliver James after a "mind tour" of seven countries chronicling how depression envelopes the affluent.
"We have become addicted to having rather than being and confusing our needs with our wants," he told Reuters in an interview to mark publication on Thursday of "Affluenza". Globe-trotting from New York to Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai via Copenhagen, Moscow and Auckland, he concluded after interviewing 240 people that "selfish capitalism" has run riot. Continue reading