Archive for December, 2009

Clues to Cancer That Could Wipe Out Tasmanian Devils (HealthDay)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Dec. 31 (HealthDay News) — Researchers are gaining a
better understanding of an outbreak of cancerous tumors that is killing
many of Australia’s Tasmanian devils, according to a new report.

Mystery of Tasmanian Devil Cancer Solved (LiveScience.com)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

LiveScience.com - All it takes is a bite for a Tasmanian devil to pass a lethal cancer on to its kin. Now scientists have figured out the origin of the transmissible facial tumor disease that’s wiping the creatures out: nerve cells.

Smoking, drinking up risks of gut, throat cancers (Reuters)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

A man smokes a cigarette in a restaurant in Rome December 28, 2004. REUTERS/Alessia PierdomenicoReuters - A new study confirms that smoking raises a person’s risks of the major forms of esophageal and stomach cancers, while drinking has more narrow effects.

Acupuncture May Cut Hot Flashes, Boost Sex Drive in Breast Cancer Patients (HealthDay)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) — Acupuncture is just as
good as standard medication to ease hot flashes and other uncomfortable
symptoms in women undergoing breast cancer treatment.

Stem Cells Might Reverse Heart Damage From Chemo (HealthDay)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) — Certain types of
chemotherapy can damage the heart while thwarting cancer, a dilemma that
has vexed scientists for years. But a new study in rats finds that
injecting the heart with stem cells can reverse the damage caused by a
potent anti-cancer drug.

East Timor's ticking AIDS timebomb (AFP)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

A Timorese man is seen standing next to brochures about HIV/AIDS at a clinic in Dili. The tiny nation of East Timor could face a deadly AIDS epidemic, with promiscuity among youths, low condom use and general ignorance leading to a sharp increase in reported cases, doctors say.(AFP/File/Mario Jonny Dos Santos)AFP - The tiny nation of East Timor could face a deadly AIDS epidemic, with promiscuity among youths, low condom use and general ignorance leading to a sharp increase in reported cases, doctors said.

Proteins show promise for ovarian cancer screening (Reuters)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Reuters - Elevated levels of three proteins show ovarian cancer is starting to grow years before women are diagnosed, but they do not increase soon enough to be an early indicator of the disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Heroin, HIV stalk tropical resort of Zanzibar (Reuters)

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

A drug user injects heroin at a construction site in Stone Town Zanzibar, December 22, 2009. REUTERS/Katrina MansonReuters - A Zanzibari man crouches in a half-built roofless building, struggling to find a vein in his arm, while his friend takes over and injects the heroin for him, drawing blood back into the syringe.

South African doctor sees drug-resistant HIV (AP)

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

This Oct. 5, 2009 photo shows an unidentified tuberculosis and HIV patient on his bed at Wat Prabat Nampu in Lopburi, Thailand. Simple TB is simple to treat, a $10 course of medication, but the pills must be taken in specific combinations for six months to completely wipe out the bacteria. If treatment is stopped short, the TB learns to fight back against the drugs, mutating into a tougher strain for which few, if any, medications exist. It can cost $100,000 a year or more to cure drug-resistant TB, which is described as multi-drug-resistant (MDR), extremely drug-resistant (XDR) and completely drug-resistant (CDR). (AP Photo/David Longstreath)AP - It’s 8 a.m. and Dr. Theresa Rossouw is already drowning behind a cluttered desk of handwritten HIV charts — new, perplexing cases of patients whose lifesaving drugs have turned against them.

Indoor Allergies Common in Winter (HealthDay)

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

HealthDay - TUESDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) — Colder temperatures can
bring some relief to those allergic to mold and pollen. But winter doesn’t
mean the end of runny noses, itchy eyes and wheezing for asthma and
allergy sufferers.