Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

New Snapshots Show States Vary Widely In Providing Quality Health Care, USA
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality"s annual release of state-by-state quality data continues to give states mixed reviews for the quality of care they provide. As in previous years, AHRQ"s 2008 State Snapshots show that no state does well or poorly on all quality measures.
generic viagra online
CytRx's INNO-206 Significantly Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Growth In Animal Trials
CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR), a biopharmaceutical research and development company engaged in the development of high-value human therapeutics, announced that treatment with its cancer drug candidate INNO-206 resulted in a statistically significant reduction in the average primary tumor size in an animal model of pancreatic cancer, outperforming the broadly used chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin, as well as the current standard of care in pancreatic cancer treatment, gemcitabine.
News of the day
Advocates Say Rise In Inquires About Adoption, Abortion Linked To Recession
Several large adoption agencies are reporting an increase in the number of women with unintended pregnancies who are considering adoption, a trend that some advocates say is tied to the recession, USA Today reports. Scott Mars of American Adoptions said that he has observed a 10% to 12% increase in the past year in the number of women asking about adoption and a 7% to 10% increase in actual placements. Mars said that the economy has led women to "take a second look at adoption." Adam Pertman of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a research group, said, "Finances are one of the major reasons women feel compelled to place their children for adoption." According to USA Today, more women also are considering delaying pregnancy or inquiring about abortion because of financial factors. A recent Gallup poll found that the economy has prompted one in 10 married women to delay pregnancy. Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers, said that calls to the group"s hotline have increased nearly threefold since 2008 and that many of the calls have come from women who have experienced job loss in their families.According to Joan Jaeger of the Chicago-area adoption agency The Cradle, about 30% more women are asking about placing a child for adoption than in 2008. She noted that many of the women inquiring about adoption are in their 20s and have at least one child. Joseph Sica of Adoption by Shepherd Care said he has seen a "dramatic increase in girls calling us from the hospital" who are interested in placing a child for adoption. Sica said that many of these women expect to receive assistance in raising their infants but inquire about adoption after they give birth and find that little help is available. He said that in 2008 his agency facilitated 14 such adoptions, an increase from 11 in 2007 and four in 2006. However, Chuck Johnson -- chief operating officer of the advocacy group the National Council for Adoption -- said that the percentage of women who place a child for adoption remains low overall, which he attributed to access to legal abortion and greater societal acceptance of single parenthood. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that before abortion became legal in 1973, one in five never-married white women and one in 10 never-married women overall placed a child for adoption after giving birth. Since then, that rate has "plummeted," USA Today reports. A 2002 survey, the most recent available, found that only 1% of such women placed a child for adoption (Koch, USA Today, 5/19).
Public Health

Snoring May Impair Brain Function

It has been linked to learning impairment, stroke and premature death. Now UNSW research has found that snoring associated with sleep apnoea may impair brain function more than previously thought. Sufferers of obstructive sleep apnoea experience similar changes in brain biochemistry as people who have had a severe stroke or who are dying, the research shows. A study by UNSW Brain Sciences, published this month in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, is the first to analyse - in a second-by-second timeframe - what is happening in the brains of sufferers as they sleep. Previous studies have focused on recreating oxygen impairment in awake patients. "It used to be thought that apnoeic snoring had absolutely no acute effects on brain function but this is plainly not true," said lead author of the study, New South Global Professor Caroline Rae. Sleep apnoea affects as many as one in four middle-aged men, with around three percent going on to experience a severe form of the condition characterised by extended pauses in breathing, repetitive asphyxia and sleep fragmentation. Children with enlarged tonsils and adenoids are also affected, raising concerns of long-term cognitive damage. Professor Rae and collaborators from Sydney University"s Woolcock Institute used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the brains of 13 men with severe, untreated, obstructive sleep apnoea. They found that even a moderate degree of oxygen desaturation during the patients" sleep had significant effects on the brain"s bioenergetic status. "The findings show that lack of oxygen while asleep may be far more detrimental than when awake, possibly because the normal compensatory mechanisms don"t work as well when you are asleep," Professor Rae, who is based at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, said. "This is happening in someone with sleep apnoea acutely and continually when they are asleep. It"s a completely different biochemical mechanism from anything we"ve seen before and is similar to what you see in somebody who has had a very severe stroke or is dying." The findings suggested societal perceptions of snoring needed to change, Professor Rae said. "People look at people snoring and think it"s funny. That has to stop." Professor Rae said it was still unclear why the body responded to oxygen depletion in this way. It could be a form of ischemic preconditioning at work, much like in heart attack sufferers whose initial attack makes them more protected from subsequent attacks. "The brain could be basically resetting its bioenergetics to make itself more resistant to lack of oxygen," Professor Rae said. "It may be a compensatory mechanism to keep you alive, we just don"t know, but even if it is it"s not likely to be doing you much good." Steve Offner University of New South Wales


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009